Snow in the Desert
by FLYINGSQUIRREL527
Summary: When the Kazekage's adopted son tries to end it all, Rasa is left to evaluate himself and what he wants while being there for Kankuro to help him recover. But how does he think of the child fate had brought him? As a son or as something more? And in the midst of all this civil unrest breaks out just as things between the two grow heated. Contains mpreg and serious themes.
1. Chapter 1

Snow in the Desert

Sorry for the long hiatus. It's unforgivable. That's all I have to say.

(AU wherein Rasa lives)

WARNING: This work of fan fiction contains the following; sandcest, yaoi, mentions of rape, anorexia, slurs, swearing, mpreg, self harm, an suicide attempt, under aged relationship, takes place in an alternate universe while sticking to the canon setting, and some characters being OOC.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto franchise. If I did it would be available on adult film sites near you.

Chapter one: Sandstorm 

Kankuro and Temari were fighting. This was nothing new. The spark that created the raging inferno between the siblings was forgotten long ago, insignificant in comparison to the flames that were blazing between the two right now. Today's round of confrontation between the two had started with Kankuro taking Temari's fan and hitting her on the ass with it while she was talking to their younger brother, and not being one to take that treatment lying down, she promptly seized the fan from her brother and proceeded to beat the crap out of him with it, which lead to Kankuro's strategic retreat into their father's office. After all, there was no greater hiding place than behind the Kazekage.

"Get back here you pussy!" She yells as Rasa pinches the bridge of his nose, an angry teenager in front of him and another one hidden behind him. He would much prefer to be on a battlefield. "So you can beat me with your fan some more? No thanks. I strategically retreated to neutral territory." He says, peeking his head out from behind his father and sticks his tongue out. "You hit me in the ass with my fan. I'm entitled to engage the enemy if I'm attacked first."

What followed was a recap of the previous several days worth of events that would have been entertaining for the Kazekage were he not stuck trying to work between two arguing meat heads. It went something like this:

"Attacked first my ass! You put ink in my war paint!"

"You did that to yourself dumb ass!"

"Don't try to make a fool of me. You did that to get back at me for telling dad about switching the poison gas in my puppets with paper bombs!"

"Well I wouldn't have done that if you hadn't told me that food pills are high in fat."

"Well they are. And you hit me for it."

"You punched me in the face and pulled my hair."

"Because you left a bag of flaming shit outside my workshop in the basement. It lit the door on fire and that's just nasty."

"Not as nasty as your mind." She says.

"What's your deal? If you got a problem with me than say it."

"Your disgusting. What kinda man likes other men?"

By this point Rasa had enough of their childish banter and hits them both in the ass with a hand made of gold dust. "Both of you. To your rooms." He says, eyes twitching, now permanently rimmed in black like their younger brothers due to stress. Temari obediently spins on her heels toward the door and walks out, heading to her room to polish her fan while she waited to be let out. Kankuro lags behind a little though, wanting to have a word with his father. "I said to go to your room Kankuro." He says sternly. "Dad... Is what she said true... Am I disgusting?" Asks the 17 year old, looking down at his feet, and the Kazekage sighs audibly. "I try not to show my disdain because your my son, but I find the concept and practice of fornication between two men to be... Well... Disgusting, and that part of you I wish would change." He says. Kankuro thinks about it for a moment and nods. "I see. So you can't respect a part of my identity and wish I would change. That means you don't love me the way I am... Okay. Well I'll just go now." He says and turns to the door and heads to his room and tries to scrub the ink off his face in the adjoined bathroom.

After a few minutes, Rasa goes to talk to his daughter and grounds her for a month for using things that could cause serious bodily harm and property damage in a pointless squabble with her brother. As their going over the terms and stipulations of her punishment Kankuro manages to remove the ink from his face and takes off his puppeteer robes, exchanging them for casual black pants and a short sleeved purple tunic with a black sash like the white one Gaara used to wear. He never wore short sleeves any more and just sits back on his bed, gazing at his puppets. With the poison in those blades, it could be over quickly. He could leave behind the un accepting attitude of his family and the scorn of a village that cared nothing about how hard he worked to keep them safe. The emptiness would quickly be gone. The hate surrounding him like a never ending sand storm would finally leave his mind and he could have peace.

He looks down at his already sliced up arms and over at Crow. He had found himself thinking of this more and more lately, thinking about weather or not he truly wanted it. And he decides that he does. His younger brother had always been distant, and Temari and his dad were showing nothing but contempt for him. The villagers that didn't entirely ignore him hated him too. His mother was gone, and he didn't know when the last time he was hugged was. He lived in a house with three other people, surrounded by a village, and yet here he was alone. That made up his mind on the matter. Today he would follow through.

He gets up and locks his door, making sure it was latched and walks over to his long time companion and smiles at him sadly. "It's been nice knowing you Crow. You too Black Ant, Salamander." He says, patting them all on the head before removing one of Crows fingers, which could be used as the handles of a knife. Purple poison dripped from the blade of the knife and he makes a few practice cuts, some poison leaching into his wrist each time before cutting deeply enough to detach the muscle joining his wrist and hand, making his fingers all but useless. He hadn't heard Rasa knock on the door, and he falls to the ground, blade still in hand. Rasa got the feeling something was really wrong as he heard the noise and uses his gold dust to pick the lock. The first thing he sees is Kankuro lying in the ground in an odd position, and then he sees all the blood, the bladed puppet finger lying in the middle of the small red puddle.

All color that may have been on the Kazekage's face was instantly gone.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two: Revelations 

-All color that may have been on the Kazekage's face was instantly gone. -

It had been replaced with the deepest possible fear in the pit of his stomach and he grabs a clean towel that had been hanging next to his baby's door, wrapping it around the bloody wrist and securing it with a bandage before pressing on the vein in the elbow that supplied blood to that part of the body. Then he picks up Kankuro and the blade and races off to the hospital in a panic.

He kept calm enough to act rationally in the initial moments, but now that the urgency had left him and shock had set in, there was nothing for Rasa to do other than shake uncontrollably and pace while they fixed up his baby. He needed surgery to repair the muscle so that he would be able to use it again, and they send the blade to the lab to analyze the poison.

An hour later when he was out of surgery Rasa sits at his bedside, holding onto his right hand, which was uninjured. Tears were streaming from the corners of his eyes. His baby was in the hospital, on oxygen, blood being filtered through a machine, all because he felt unloved. And it was, at least in part, his fault. He brushed a piece of hair off Kankuro's face and kisses his forehead before he looks down at the sight that gnawed at the very core of him. How could he not notice those arms? Sure, Kankuro had always burnt easily and it did get cold at night, but hadn't there been some situation where he may have seen Kankuro's arms? In the past four years he had taken to wearing long sleeves more and more, his reasons being logical, and Rasa never suspected a thing. He lifts the small sleeve on his gown and it went all the way up to his shoulder with stitches in several places on his surprisingly small arms. When had Kan lost so much weight any way? It was hard to see past the robes he wore. Sure his face had slimmed down but he thought that was from growing up. His collar bones sticking out said otherwise. Maybe if they had sat down and eaten as a family he would have noticed, but Kankuro was a smart kid and he was a terrible father.

If his arms, which were harder to hide were this bad though, what did his little Kan's legs look like? The thought made him sick, yet he had to fold back the covers and see. The first thing he noticed was the size of them and he slowly rolls up some of the material over his leg all the way to his hip. There were cuts and stitches all over the limb all the way to, and on the protruding hip. He quickly puts the fabric down and covers his baby up, going back to holding his uninjured hand and stroking his hair with the other.

About an hour later his frail son wakes up and squeezes his hand, bringing Rasa out of his stupor and he lifts his head from the bed. "Kanny?" He asks and then hugs him as tightly as he could without fear. And Kanny lifts his good hand and takes off the mask to talk. "...why did you..." Save me? And Rasa just strokes his hair softly. "Because your my baby and I love you." He says and kisses his cheeks, which makes Kankuro cry. "...then you should have let me..." Go. "I couldn't have sweetie. We may not get along and we may not see eye to eye, but I love you."

At this Kankuro sits up and coughs a little. "Love? I live in fear every day. I'm either ignored or treated with contempt at best, and at worst I have the hell beaten out of me simply because of what I like in a partner. I live each day longing for the same thing as everyone else. Happiness and basic human rights. And I don't see that happening any time soon when I can't even hold hands with a man in public. And I'm sure that if I ever found someone who actually did care about me we would both be killed or something. Half the village thinks gay men should be killed. Dad, did you even know that men can have children? Do you have any idea why that never happens? It's because they never carry to term. I'll leave the reasons why to your imagination." He says and starts coughing and Rasa rubs his back and shakes a little at that information.

"No Kankuro. I had no idea. But you do know I'm trying to change things for you, even if I don't understand it. And don't ask if it's because of this. I've been working on this for a while. And hearing about the loss of those children makes me feel sick to my stomach." He says, holding him close. "Baby I'm here for you, but when you get home I think you know some things are goanna have to change so I can know your safe." He says.

"What sorts of things?" He asks. "Well to begin, I'm taking your puppets away until your better. And anything sharp or toxic will be locked up. If you want to shower or shave your not goanna do that alone. Because I'm worried I'm going to lose you. Your not goanna go on missions until your better for that same reason." He says, still holding him. "And your goanna eat all your meals with me so I can make sure your getting proper nutrition. I'm scared I'm going to lose you forever Kanny. I just came so close to it. And I don't know what I would have done if I had." He says and Kankuro tries to protest but is quickly shut down by a kiss to the forehead and his dad climbing next to him. "Sleep Kanny."

So I'm sorry for the short chapter. This was really more intended to supply information and set some ground work to enable the plot ahead. Please read and review. Flames will be used to roast marshmallows.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three: Self evaluations

That night after Kankuro falls into a sound sleep, Rasa gently lies him down and tucks him in. The doctors administer a dose of antitoxin through his IV and tell Rasa to go home and get some rest. He was in stable condition and they would send a messenger to him if anything changed. With a tired and stressed out look in his eyes, Rasa kisses Kankuro's forehead and tucks the blankets around him, making sure he's warm and that his head is elevated so he's not stiff in the morning. After finally being satisfied, he walks to the nearest bar and orders two beers to start, not really paying attention to his surroundings and pondering the events that led up to this mess.

Kankuro seemed to indicate that he tried to take his own life because he was lonely and felt isolated. Why? The answer was clearly his sexual orientation. But what about being able to see every bone in his body? He had often heard that eating disorders were linked to not just poor self esteem, but also to perfectionism, and the compulsion to have control. He had read that it developed as a means to try and have control over something when the suffer felt that they had control of nothing. Going on now meticulous Kankuro was with everything, he was without a doubt a perfectionist.

Every report he wrote had a detailed chronological account of everything that happened on his mission. His grammar and syntax were perfect and his hand writing uniform throughout the page. His room was always cleaned. His puppets were ready to go at a moments notice, always fully stocked with hidden weapons, and he shudders a bit, but poisons as well. His war paint was always perfectly applied and whenever he had seen Kankuro fight, his command over his weapons was impeccable and rehearsed. Every maneuver of his puppet was calculated and all three he had perfect command over. His perfectionism was well hidden behind a flippant seeming attitude and rough speech patterns, but the more Rasa thought about it, the more he saw.

If being gay made him feel lonely, what made him feel like his life wasn't in control? Rasa didn't have an answer for that, but he got the feeling that they weren't caused by the same thing. As he mulls over this he had already downed his first beer. And why was he so against gay marriage? Why did he find it disgusting? He had never bothered to ask himself why he felt that way. Well his father told him it was wrong. But as he starts sipping on his beer he wonders what his own thoughts were on the matter.

Why is it wrong for two men or women to love each other? He really didn't have an answer. Why was it disgusting? It wasn't what people were used to seeing. But did that make it gross? Not in the slightest. What made women attractive to him? That thought stops him. Sure they were beautiful, they were in many cases kind and sweet, but for as many kind and beautiful women he had met he hadn't had the desire to have sex with one. Not since his wife died. And sure he had sex with his wife, but it hadn't felt intimate. He always had thought it was because it had been an arranged marriage rather than a marriage from love. But when in his life had he felt love for another to the deep point where he would give his life for another? When had it brought tears to his eyes?

The answer to that was the day Temari and Gaara were born. When he first lied eyes on his son and daughter he had such high hopes for them and would give the world to see them succeed. And the day he found an abandoned baby left in an area of the village slated for demolition and redevelopment into a hospital. It was when he was doing his final walk through that he had first heard the small cry of a new born. He had been tucked away in a garbage can. And somehow this carried a different meaning than the birth of his oldest and youngest. Rather than seeing Kankuro for the first time and being in awe of the life he created, he was in awe of the little ones fighting spirt. Rather than being protective from a hormonal bliss induced by the birth of his biological children, his protectiveness of Kankuro was a conscious decision. His plan to raise him was something he chose, even if his wife didn't want to care for a child that wasn't hers. Kankuro was the first person the 17 year old had chose to love, and now half a life later at 34, he almost ruined him.

The first person he had chose to love. Was Kankuro. What did this mean? He hasn't chosen to love anyone else as family since his discovery. But Kankuro was his sweet little boy. His world revolved around his village and his kids. He loved his village and his people deeply, but not on the same personal level as his family. Gaara had the same look as him, but he had the emotions and spoke like his mother had. As a kid he had been kind by nature like his mother. He was born when Rasa had been 19, and his wife was 21. Gaara was their strongest. He would be Rasa's legacy. Temari looked like her mother, but had inherited his iron will. She's beautiful and strong and he couldn't be more proud of her. Temari was his pride. And Kankuro. Kanny was entirely different. His personality was in a class al by its self. Flippant, yet calculated. Relaxed but intelligent. Strong but modest. Not many people saw him this way, but to him it seemed like Kankuro had an image he was trying to project. But since day one, Kankuro had always been his light and joy.

Where did he lose that? By the time he left he had 5 beers.

Okay. Just another chapter to set the scene. First I set up the events leading up to the plot and then establish the frame of mind of the characters. I think Kankuro's is pretty well established based on his actions, but Rasa's was a bit more difficult and I also wanted to put a bit of background in. Kanny being adopted is pretty important to this story. Now to move on with the plot. DUN DUN DUN! As usual please read and review. Flames will be used to burn calories.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Control and discord

2 weeks later the poison finally left Kankuro's system and his wrist had healed enough to go home. All the stitches from his previous mutilations had been removed, save for the wrist. Rasa was there to pick him up, and had brought him clean clothes. Since it had been quite some time since Kankuro had walked he carried him home. He would have piggy backed were it not for his wrist so instead he was stuck carrying him bridal style.

When they get home Rasa carries him to the bathroom since he hadn't had a chance to shampoo in the two weeks he had been there. Sure the nurses sponged Him down, but that only helped so much. Rasa starts by helping him get his clothes off since his hand was still recovering muscle movement and then helping him into the tub where he uses the sprayer to remove the majority of the grime and the more stubborn stuff came off with a wash cloth and soap, which Kankuro had been able to do himself. Shampoo however was another story. He wasn't able to spread the soap throughout his hair with one hand so Rasa had to help him with that. After shampooing his hair 4 times his scalp finally felt clean. And after a deep conditioner he was set.

"Okay. Let's get you to your room." Says Rasa, helping him get the towel tucked around his waist and brushing his hair out. "It's next to mine now by the way. All your stuff has been moved." He says and Kankuro's eye twitches. "You went through my stuff?" He asks, trying to walk to his room on his own, falling on his ass.

"Yes. And all your weapons are gone, or anything you could use to hurt yourself. I'm sorry for violating your personal space but it had to be done for your safety. I did not look through your sketch books, note books or diary, though it was tempting. I did shake them by the bindings though and found the razor blades there." He says, picking him up and helping him walk to his room and setting him on the bed and grabbing him clean clothes again and helping him with any tasks that required his fine motor skills, like buttons or ties, and then sits him down on the bed while he sits across from him on a chair from Kankuro's desk.

"Okay. After what happened we have to have a talk. I'm goanna start with what's going to change. You already know that showering and shaving will be an accompanied task because of the risks involved. Here's what else is going to change. First I'm going to be going through your room every couple days to make sure you haven't found another way to hurt yourself. Second everything in the house that could be dangerous to you is under lock and key. Third, we'll be eating meals together. These things will become less strict as you get better. When this happens is up to you. If I see that your putting forth an effort than some of these conditions may become more lax. For your safety I'm not sending you on missions and you'll help with office work instead." He says and puts a hand on Kanny's head.

"Also, I've had a lot of time to think about it, and I'm sorry. What I said was out of bounds and it wasn't even my own opinion. Your wonderful the way you are. I don't care if your gay, straight, or frigging green. Don't change who you are because people are jerks. I love you the way you are." He says and kisses his forehead.

Kankuro was about to pitch a serious fit at those conditions, but stops short when he hears those words come from Rasa's mouth. He isn't sure how to really react to that. Then he finally asks him, "So what brought this about?" He asks, not able to really find any other words to question him on the matter. "Well," Rasa begins, taking a deep breath, "I asked myself why it was wrong, and other than that being what my father told me, I couldn't find an answer. And after a lot of soul searching, I've come to realize that I'm not straight either. I just never really took the time to consider what I like rather than what I'm supposed to like. When I was married to Gaara and Temari's mother it was an arranged marriage. I thought that was the reason there was no love, even though we were both fond of each other and had become good friends. But that doesn't make a romantic love life. It was more of a domestic partnership than anything. I was always listening to what the elders were telling me about family without ever really stopping to consider my own opinions. Stopping to think about it only made me uncomfortable because I was insecure in myself. And I'm sorry I made you suffer as a result of it."

Kankuro stops to consider what he had just heard. First, Rasa was sorry. Second Rasa was gay. He processes it for a minuet and slaps him across the cheek real quick with his good hand. "I'm entitled to that. Now your forgiven." He says and hugs him. Rasa was stunned for a minuet at the slap, then at the hug that proceed, but after recovering he wraps his arms around him and says, "I deserved that." Kankuro's response was, "Damn right you did!" But as he says it he hugs him tighter.

He holds Kanny close and kisses his forehead. "Okay. Well it's time for lunch. You want me to carry you or do you want help with walking?" He asks. "Help me walk please." He says and Rasa slips his arm under his arms to support him. It takes about 10 minuets, but they slowly make their way to the kitchen where one of the maids who helped around the house since Rasa's wife passed had made curry with rice, a side of cottage cheese with peaches, and steamed carrots. "How much of that do I have to eat?" He asks. "All of it. We need you to gain weight. I want you at least to weigh 120 pounds. When you reach a healthy weight you can have smaller portions. We need you to eat 2,500 calories a day until you reach that weight. When that happens we can reduce to 2,000, which is healthy Kankuro. Even when you were being tube fed to supplement calories you only gained 1 pound in the hospital Kanny. You weigh 79 pounds. Even Gaara who is a foot shorter than you weighs 130 pounds." He says.

Kan was still livid though. He had restricted himself to 500 calories a day with 700 on weekends. He worked so hard to have the self control that he did. To get his body to start looking the way he wanted it to. For there to be a bridge when he put his underwear on. For his thighs not to touch. For his collar bones to look good in a top with a wider neck. He starts shaking and starts to cry. "Hey, come on. You'll be okay. Tell me what happened. When did all this start baby." He asks and wraps his arms around him. He had the feeling the cutting started around 13. But his clothes started becoming baggy around 15, so his guess would be two years ago. "Was it a specific event or_?" He was going to ask him weather or not it was something that had accumulated from multiple stressors, but before he could finish Kankuro had nodded.

"What happened sweet heart?" He asks and Kankuro shakes his head. "I was advised not to tell you about what happened." He says. "By who?" He demands. "The police." He says, taking a small bite of the food then rearranging the food like he had for the whole meal and Rasa frowns, worry etching across his features. "If you really want to know, you can read some of my diary later, but if it comes out of my mouth then the consequences wouldn't be favorable." He says, starting to feel nauseous and disgusted, thinking about what happened and how much he had eaten. How disgusting he was and how he had lost control of everything. He couldn't even kill himself right. He tries to stop the tears from falling but is ineffective against the onslaught of emotions. And those emotions had pulled out the heavy arterially this time. It took him an hour to eat lunch with the coaxing of his father. When they were done they walk up to his room, but it takes a bit longer this time in lieu of decreased dexterity as a result of anxiety.

When they get to his room, Kankuro opens to a page from two and half years ago. Rasa had a sickening feeling as he takes the book from Kankuro. He had the distinct feeling that what he read was going to be disturbing on a level he couldn't fathom. What it would take to bring his confident, intelligent, loud, somewhat reckless and lovably uncouth beam of light to a state like his present one had to be something extreme. He takes a deep breath to steady himself and looks down at the page.

The date was two years and three months prior. It read the following:

'I was doing a patrol today. The district of the village was one known to be hostile to "faggots" like me, and there's a lot of violent crime in the area. I heard a disturbance in one of the back ally ways, and since I was on duty I went to investigate. I found an assault in progress. The victim was a civilian man of about twenty. The assailants numbers were 11 men of genin rank, appearing to be between the ages of 30 and 50. I engaged them with crow using non lethal force. During this time the victim made it to safety. As I was engaging one of them used a lightning style jutsu that was making it's way along my chakra threads. For this reason I had to disengage my threads. While I was trying to regain control over my puppet again, I was incapacitated by a particularity hard blow to the stomach.

I heard them laughing about me being the Kazekage's "fag little pet" and that he "should have left me in the trash can" as they removed my clothes. I don't know how long it went on for, but all 11 of them tried to make me straight by associating sex with pain. It was awful. I'm so sore right now and there was so much blood. They kept mocking the way my ass and stomach wiggled. It hurts to walk, and when I reported it the police force told me not to speak of my case or I would be interfering with an ongoing investigation and I wouldn't be able to press charges. I'll never get back what they took from me. I was a virgin and I wanted to save it for someone who loved me but now I'm just some fucking piece of trash cum dump who's too weak to defend himself and too reckless to call for backup when I need it.'

The graphic details followed on the next few pages that made Rasa's stomach turn. The hand writing had grown more and more sloppy and the writing less calculating, jumbling together, the thoughts contained becoming more distraught, his language being more foul as the pages continued. If the page could speak it would be wailing. Nothing was left to the imagination and he could feel the heart break reaching out of the page and crushing his chest like a thousand pound weight. He had tears streaking his face and he was so full of rage that this could happen to someone who he loved so much. But for now he had to push those feelings aside. Kankuro sat next to him, sobbing and terrified. He had just confided every intimate feeling and detail about the greatest trauma he had ever endured. It made him feel vulnerable and brought everything that happened that day to the forefront of his mind, and was reliving the pandemonium.

Pushing his rage aside for now he reaches over to comfort Kankuro, gathering him into his arms and rubbing his back, letting him cry it out. "I'm so sorry." He utters and strokes his hair, rocking him slowly as they sat beside his bed. Kankuro just clings to his shirt , drenching it in tears, taking as much comfort from the assuring words and loving embrace Rasa provided. He promised him that he would get justice. That he wasn't angry at him, and still loved him. That what happened didn't change his heart nor did it make him any less pure. He could not be held accountable for something that he had no control over. Rasa admitted to him after calming down, "Kankuro, I don't comprehend from experience why you feel the way you do, but I understand why this would make you feel this way. Sharing this with me took a lot of courage. I'm proud of you for being able to share this with me. This doesn't change my opinion of your strength. Your very capable as a shinobi. Your even stronger as a person for dealing with the amount of antipathy and scorn every day for being who you are. And going on after being violated like that... Kanny I'm so sorry about everything. I promise you. Never again. I'll protect you. I promise." He says and the words brought Kankuro so much comfort. He didn't let Rasa go as he fell asleep. He felt himself being picked up and the lamp turned off but he didn't care. He was too exhausted and emotionally spent. Rasa placed him in bed, curling up next to him and holding him protectively, falling asleep next to him and holding him close. Keeping him safe.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Royal affair

Warning: Comic relief follows. I've been heavy on the feels lately. I thought I would write something that either makes you laugh or scars you for life. Also, the romance begins.

Several weeks later Kankuro was up 10 pounds. Meals were still a struggle and so was his compulsion for self destruction, but there was a new understanding between the fourth Kazekage and Kankuro. This understanding branched into the other members of his family, Gaara and Temari. They had begun eating dinner as a family every night and the arguments between him and Temari had died down. They had become more supportive of him and really helped with his recovery. He was getting use of his hand back but there was still a significant amount of pain. Needless to say though, things were starting to settle into a routine and some sense of normalcy had returned. It had been short lived though.

One evening while sitting at the table, a messenger comes in for Rasa with a written note from the elders. It had been the day after Kankuro was released from the hospital that he had gone public with his orientation. It had gone over with some resistance and a small riot, but was accepted within a few days. Changes were made to protect homosexuals from harm and discrimination in work and housing consideration, and gay marriage was legalized. Several couples had already tied the knot. The council now felt it was time for another change though.

The message read that it was time for him to choose a spouse. He had gotten this message in the past at least once a year but this time he didn't have an excuse. He was out now and every gay man between the ages of 16 through 36 not related by blood was being considered. Forms were being sent out for compatibility and attached to the message was a form for Rasa. The forms were to be submitted anonymously and to be numbered. The kazekage would select the numbers he liked and would then meet with prospective partner that he found most suitable. Rasa sighs audibly and starts filling out the form using soy sauce as ink because he was annoyed and didn't care much for the elders antics. Plus it was right there.

"Can I be done now?" Asks Kankuro as an overbearing Temari was trying to spoon feed him because his wrist needed ice. "Finish your dinner Kankuro." Says Rasa, filling out the questions as he looked over to the half eaten plate of fettuccine Alfredo. "But Rasa! The sauce has butter in it!" He whines and swats Temari's hand away, making the fork drop to the ground. "I'm aware of that. That doesn't change that your still 400 calories short of the amount your doctors set. Finish that and you'll be done." He says. Gaara looks at the three of them with a blank look. "Should I get the pompoms and wear a cheerleader outfit?" He asks, blank expression not leaving his face. Kankuro takes another bite, not exactly looking forward to seeing Gaara's bright red leg and armpit hair in a cheerleading outfit again. That was something he wished he could unsee. "That just makes me not want to eat even more..." Says Kankuro. "Just open up for the cho cho train Kanny." Says Temari. "Now you guys are just mocking me." He says. "Glad things are back to normal." Even Gaara cracks a smile at that.

Rasa soon completed the form and gave it back to the messenger who can't help but raise an eyebrow at his choice in ink. But oh well. It worked.

Within that week and after another two pounds gained for Kankuro, (putting him at 92 pounds,) the forms went out, numbered according to name, to every gay man between the allotted ages, and were soon turned in. The best perspective was number 1111411211815. Nobody got the number system but the person who had designed it.

Rasa was worried though. He didn't want a new spouse and he didn't think there was enough room in his heart to let someone new in. Gaara and Temari saw this too. And over the years had seen a bond between Kankuro and Rasa that they couldn't quite put into words. It was only now that they realized what it was. Love. Rasa had never been allowed to legally adopt Kankuro since he had no birth certificate, but he was appointed as his legal guardian. And they had been fortunate enough to have a love that had been allowed to blossom over the years, even if they hadn't realized that yet. So when the day came to meet 1111411211815 Gaara and Temari weren't looking forward to it. This guy was goanna ruin everything. Kankuro wasn't there though. He had been given his first mission since being out of the hospital. A lost cat recovery mission.

Ebiuzo, Chyio, and all the other elders were there discussing things like how long the engagement should be. They were bickering back and forth as usual. "The boy is on the younger side. Give them time!" Says one and another glares at him and says, "Yeah well Rasa isn't getting younger at 34. If there are going to be children, now is the time. I say a 6 month engagement!" Says an older women. "I don't think they should marry at all. 1911915189 looks better to me. It would be a better political move." Says a middle aged man with an oily expression.

"You just want someone easy for you to control 1911915189 seemed like a puppet."

"Last time we made him marry politically things went south when she wound up dead."

"Don't say that! You need to learn to mind your tongue around the Kazekage."

They droned on and on and on. Talking much but saying very little. That's when the door pops open and a black clad shinobi clutching a cat by the scruff of its neck was silhouetted by the bright desert sun. "I got yer cat now why did you call me here jaan!?" Asks a familiar rough, indifferent sounding voice that had the slightest hint of irritation. "Kankuro. Your number please?" Asks an elder, holding out his hand for a slip of paper. "Huh? You mean this thing?" He asks, reaching into his underwear because he had no pockets. "On second thought, why don't you read it aloud." He says, withdrawing his hand and recoiling just a bit. "Your one of the few we haven't heard back from for number confirmation." Several other men were in the room with their numbers. "Oh um, okay. It's 218..." Temari and Gaara's heart sank a little. "No wait. Sorry. I had it upside down. Its 1111411211815." He says.

Gaara's sand falls out of his gourd and Temari whacks him with her fan. "YOU IDIOT WERN'T YOU PAYING ANY ATTENTION WHEN DAD TOLD YOU THE NUMBER?" She asks, very loudly in his ear. "Geeze Teme-ri. I don't think I heard you. What's the big deal?" He asks rubbing his ear and dropping the angry cat on the nearest elder's lap. It just so happened to be the Feudal Lord.

"The form dad thought was best suited to him was number 111411211815." Says Gaara. "...say again?" Asks Kankuro and Rasa just doesn't know what to say. "This is unexpected. But you never really thought of me as a dad did you Kankuro? If you did you wouldn't call me Rasa." Kankuro nods a little. "I always loved you. You just weren't dad though. I can't really put it into words..." He says.

"Okay. Well the elders chose two forms that were best compatible with me for me to choose from. I picked yours..." He says, awkwardly hugging him and Kankuro hugs him back, it growing into something less awkward after a minuet. Then after another they seem to realize what it is they feel for each other, Rasa holding Kankuro's head against his chest, a hand stroking his hair and one wrapped around the small of his back. His forehead rested on the top of Kankuro's head while the brunette had his eyes closed, arms hooked under Rasa's and holding onto his Kazekage robes.

"Okay. Save that for the wedding night. We have things to discuss." Says one of the elders, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Seeing as the two of you know each other very well already, I think it's safe to say that a long engagement period won't be required. I say we give them a month."

"I think we should reconsider 1911915189. I don't think this is ethically right." Says the suspicious looking man again.

"Shut it you old underhanded croon. That candidate would be a pawn to you." Says the middle aged lady. "I don't agree. One month gives enough time for preparations. It would mean potential heirs to the title of Kazekage would be born sooner." She says.

They go on and on for a while, squabbling like children before settling on one month. Then they start arguing about decoration, the menu, the theme, the music, the flowers and what Kankuro would wear.

In response to this, the ever tactless Kankuro takes off his shoe and throws it at the middle aged women's head to get everyone's attention. They all stop and turn to him, mouths agape. "Did it ever occur to you that I may want some say in the planning. I am the one getting married after all. "I'll pick everything and you just sit on your thumbs and look for prunes or something." He says, turns around, grabs Rasa's hand, and heads for the exit. "Let's make some plans." He says.

"Put your shoe on Kankuro."

Sorry if this chapter didn't seem as serious! I had to write! I'm all caffeinated and haven't had more than two hours of sleep in like 57 hours! MOUNTAIN DEW KICK START MOTHER FUCKERS! Also, anyone who figures out the code I used for the numbers gets FREE COOKIES! Your hint is o=15. Remember to read and review. If your goanna flame remember that haters make me famous so your only doing me a favor. Peace! \m/


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Planning

Kankuro had been given another month off missions to plan his wedding. He had to approve everything with the council to make sure they didn't think it was too strange. He was Kankuro after all. But so far everything he had picked had been approved. For flowers he had chosen lilies and orchids in white and purple. The music would be classical and he chose to have a string band playing. The type with cellos, violins, violas, mandolins, and whatever other type of instruments went along with that. He choose to have the venue for the reception decorated to the color scheme of the flowers, with the addition of water lilies on the tables at the reception floating in little bowls of water with floating candles. The ceremony was to be public in front of the Kazekage's office. That way the citizens of the sand were free to show up if they pleased.

The reception was to be held in one of the indoor garden buildings that had a high glass roof top that let in the sun rays during the day and the moon and stars were beautiful at night. The floor had an beautiful mosaic river formed from tiles that led up to a fountain where water was retrieved to water the hanging plants when the gardeners were at work. The tiled flower beds were raised up along the walls, leaving the perfect venue for a wedding reception. The decorators the council had hired to make sure his vision came true were busy transforming it from something beautiful to something regal.

The menu had been a harder item for him to tackle. He was trying to do something healthy that suited his tastes, Rasa's, and that guests would like too. He could have asked Gaara, but he already knew he would say chicken livers. And Temari was out on a mission. He ran his hand through his hair. Shawarma maybe? That would make it easy enough for the caterers. But there was mayo on that. Cabbage soup would work. It was low in calories and tasted good. It would take up space on the banquet table. And a couscous salad could work too. But everything else was overwhelming. He sighs again and let's his head hit the desk he was working on.

"What are you having trouble with now?" Asks Shino, who was here for a mission. He just had to deliver a message and wait on a response. But of course the reply would have to be worded just right and the council would take forever agreeing how to respond and how to word it. In other words he had time to kill. Being one of Kankuro's closer friends he agreed to help him out and keep him company. "It's the menu still. I keep finding something wrong with whatever pops into my head. Like how many carbs or how much fat there is." Shino raises an eyebrow in response to that. "That's because your view of food isn't healthy to begin with. Let me see what you have so far."

Kankuro hands him a slip of paper. It was a small list that read:

Shawarma?

Couscous

Cabbage soup

"That's all? We've been at this for an hour." He points out. "Maybe you need someone to make suggestions. What about a fruit arrangement?" Kankuro nods. "That's a good idea." He says, writing it on the list. "You have to have things on there for other people too Kankuro. What's normally served at big weddings around here?" He asks him. "Um, lamb roast seasoned with lime and orange zest." He says. "Well let's add that. It's what the council will want to see. It won't give them a reason to reject your personal preferences. That's because to get what you want from people like them you have to give them something they want. Now what else?" He asks, writing that on the list. "Cilantro and lime rice, roasted chestnuts, figs, and Kebabs. There's usually lettuce wraps too." He says. Shino writes all that down. "All right. You got the hardest part of the way. Let them do the ordering so you won't have to think about how much. What about drinks?" Asks the insect user. "Well they normally have a selection of red and white wines and champagne. But I'm no expert in that. I'm under age so when I do drink I go for whisky. Just write whatever is best aged at the time of purchasing on there. Then for something that isn't alcoholic let's have a fruit punch with lemon lime soda mixed in. The type with coconut and orange juice. I think there's pineapple juice in there too." He says. Shino nods. "Water should also be readily available. That way dehydration can be deterred. And a selection of juices should be available too in case there are children." He says writing all that down. "Are we done yet?" Asks Kankuro, pulling at his hair. "You still gotta do desserts." Says Rasa, walking in from his office and hugging Kankuro from behind and kissing the side of his neck. He was on his lunch break so he had some time to spend with Kankuro and the perfect chance to embarrass him.

"Ahhh Rasa, not right now! I have a friend here. Not the neck!" He says, squirming a little before Rasa finally removes his lips. "I ordered us some shawarma and grilled egg plant for lunch." He says, running a hand through Kankuro's hair. "But Rasa! There's cheese on the egg plant and mayonn_ mhmph!" He was silenced by a brief kiss. "Shut up Kankuro. Your over a third of the way there." He whispers. "You've gotten so much better in two months. Keep going." He says and picks him up bridal style. "Shino. Join us for lunch." He says as a blushing Kankuro squirms in Rasa's arms. "Yes sir." He says and follows them down to the table where the lunch was being set up.

They sit down at the table and after a little bit they start talking about the plans. "So what have you got done?" Asks Rasa. "Well the venue for the reception has been booked and is being decorated, the decorations for the ceremony have been ordered, a band is lined up, the flowers have been ordered, the dinner menu is done and so is the guest list." He says. "I got to invite the friends and family and what not, and the council invited what ever politicians and shit they wanted. All these feudal lords and family heads. We have the beverage menu too." He adds.

"Have the invitations gone out?" He asks. Kankuro nods and picks at his food. "So what else is left?" He asks. "Well we still have to get desert out of the way. The main deal there would be the cake. Maybe some hazelnut chocolate baklava too and ice cream since its summer. Pistachio, green tea, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry should be fine, then the standard sherbets too. Then we'll be set there." He says. "What's that leave?" Asks Rasa as he feeds Kankuro a slice of the egg plant. After begrudgingly swallowing the feta covered vegetable, he says, "Well, there's the wedding party, wardrobe, we need someone to preside, we need to do the rehearsal dinner, we need to select the cake, hair and makeup arrangements need to be done because the council still wants me to look "appropriate", welcome baskets, we need to shop for rings, take care of seating arrangements, and get gifts for the wedding party." He says.

"You forgot something." Says Rasa and kisses his cheek. "What about the honey moon?" He whispers as he pulls away. "Their allowing you to take time off?" He asks. He nods a little. "I get a week off." He says. "Okay. I'll get to that after the wedding party and wardrobe. Right now that's the biggest thing." "All right. How about I take the rest of the day off and we shop for rings and pick out the cake. I'll ask Gaara to stand in the wedding as my best man." He says. "That sounds good. Temari can be my er... Best maid? I don't know." He says. "The council said I can still wear a mans formal tunic but they want it to be white, and they want you in what ever color you want as long as you don't do tye dye. The flowers are white and purple though." He says. "Try not to wear orange or something." He says. "Let's get those today. I can do purple to match the flowers and the wedding party can be a lighter purple." He says. "Thanks Rasa." He says.

After they finish their lunch they check the mail and each village wanted some sort of representatives in the wedding party so they sent letters of "Sure why not. We can't think of anyone else to have stand with us." After dropping those off in the mail box they head to the jewelry store to pick out bands and get them engraved. Kankuro had chosen a silver one and Rasa had chosen a gold one. They got the other's name engraved on it along with the date of their wedding.

Next they went into the cake shop where Kankuro was surprisingly non resistant and try the different varieties of cake. They both end up agreeing on a cherry chip cake and choose a three tiered cake that would be big enough for each of the guests to have a slice. White icing and light purple frosting roses would be arranged to look like they were erupting from the top and flowing down the side. It had crystals made of sugar embellishing each tier, and their names along the top in editable silver.

Lastly they go to pick what they were going to wear. The women who owned the formal wear store was the head of the business district on the council and insisted on the traditional ceremonial toga style tunics. "Whatever." Says rasa and picks a dark colored one the same color of the orchids with a white stripe along the bottom of it and Kankuro gets a white one with a purple stripe. The tailor fusses with Kankuros because it would need some adjustments. "He'll have gained 6 pounds by the wedding day so be sure to bring that into account." He says as they pin the waist where he would need it.

The last thing they do is pick out some simple light purple tunics for the wedding party. Different designs for boys and girls. 8 of each for the other villages and slightly more elaborate ones for Gaara and Temari. Things were really starting to come together.

Okay. I really don't have anything to say about this other than they tie the knot next chapter. Read and review. Flames will be used to help me take over hell.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: The Big Day

The other villages tried to send people that Kankuro and Rasa knew to stand in their wedding. That was a task easier said than done. The Leaf had sent Shino, which he was greatful for, and Hinata. He didn't know her too well but when he had met her he enjoyed her company. The cloud had sent Omoui, whom Kankuro had worked with before, and his red headed team mate named Karaui whom Kankuro hadn't met before. The mist had sent friends of his father's, as had the earth. Kankuro had the seating arrangements made so that enemy village officials weren't near each other, made sure that the villages that didn't like eachother were well out of each others way and separated by the officials sent from smaller nations. Gifts were given to members of the wedding party as a formality. Gift baskets had also been set up for the out of town guests with things that may make their stay in the sand more endurable like a canteen, sunscreen and a fan. The appointment for hair and makeup had been made because the elders thought Kankuro still looked too sickly. The clothes were altered as needed. The flowers were being set up and delivered. Yet somehow, Kankuro was still unable to sleep.

He looks over at his clock. 4:23. There was no point in trying to sleep now. He sighs, stands up, and stretches. There was really no point in waiting around in bed when he could get things done. He throws on a pair of black sweats since it was still night, and therefore cold, and a black shirt that was long and heavy. After throwing on a cloak he sneaks into the guest room where the man Gaara and Temari were giving each other dirty looks over was sleeping, along with the rest of their joinin leader. He uses a chakra thread to "barrow" a couple of smokes and grabs a candle and goes to sit on the roof, not getting what they saw in the lazy man any way. He sits down on top of the dome shaped building and looks up at the stars, smiling a little as he lights the smoke with the candle. It wasn't often that he smoked except for when he was really nervous. And it wasn't nerves about getting married. It was all the politics involved in the wedding. Why couldn't they just get their marriage license and have a small wedding? Because the old bastards had to make a show out of it. That's why.

He takes another hit and sighs a little. "It appears that you were having difficulty sleeping." Says Shino, appearing on the roof next to him. "And that's 7 minuets off your life." He says, eying the smoke in his hand. "Yeah I know. I'm just worried. What if the Cloud tries to steal another villages Jutsu or that pervert from the Leaf pisses off the Mizukage or the earth tries to do something underhanded? What if the smaller nations get picked on by the bigger ones. The old folks just had to go and make a show about it though. I'm so worried about what could go wrong that I'm probably not going to be able to enjoy myself. Everything has to be about politics though."

"You are marrying The Kazekage Kankuro. Now that your about to be his husband your goanna need to learn to deal with them. That is because even though your well being doesn't depend on them, the well being of the people of your nation does. Rasa is a man with a lot of power both as a shinobi and with making laws. He doesn't control businesses, can't enforce every law, and can't run a country on his own though. There's probably someone in businesses on that council, someone in defense, someone in law enforcement, someone in the judicial system, all grappling for more power than the other." He says. "It's pretty much the same every where."

Kankuro nods and takes another hit. "Wanna check on how everything is going with the flowers?" He asks. There were so many that they were still setting them up. One thing the council hadn't done is spared an expense. That way the Sand maintained a mighty reputation. "Sure. What does the schedule for the day look like any way?" Asks Shino as they get up and jump to a smaller roof. "Well at 8 Chiyo wants me to meditate and de-stress with her so I don't loose my shit during the wedding." He starts and they jump to an even lower roof. "Then at 9:30 breakfast." He says, jumping to a third roof that was even lower. "They normally give me an hour to eat. So that's done at 10:30 and at 10:45 the clothes are being delivered for the whole wedding party. The rings come at 11:00 along with two live doves. It's a sand thing. At 11:30 hair and makeup starts. There's 6 people that need it including me so that will take a while. At 12:45 we break for lunch and their only giving me a half hour. At 1:15 we resume and that appointment goes until 3. I have 10 minuets to go open up for the caterers. Then have to wait around another 10 for the cake." He says and from the roof they were currently on, they jump to the ground and start walking toward the building. Kankuro was still working on a cigarette. "After that I have another 10 minuets to get back here and make sure the band knows the plan. At 3:45 the photographer and videographer arrive. Got to get set up with them, then there's 45 minuets to get dressed, get everything in line, pass out the flowers, and get in position because the ceremony starts at 4:30." He says. "You really do have a full day." He says as they get to the reception building and walk inside as soon as Kankuro extinguishes his smoke.

"Wow. It's looking great in here!" He says, looking around. He sees the weary looking decorators who had been at it all night and turns to Shino. "I'll be right back." He says and runs to one of the open stores that had food and drink and comes back with some sandwiches and tea for them. "Take a few minuets. This will be done on time. You guys look tired and you deserve this." He says.

For the next few hours they help out until it's time for him to meet with Chiyo. After smelling the smoke on him and getting a good scolding he sits down with her to meditate and to talk about what's been going on lately. They had these sessions weekly since he got out of the hospital but today he got an extra half hour with her and then they eat breakfast together. Today it was oatmeal with cream, sugar and fresh fruit. He managed to finish about 15 minutes early and helps her with the dishes. Then he heads home to sign for the clothes and hangs them at the perspective male and female dressing rooms and then goes to sign for the rings and the doves. He ties the rings to their ankles. Their very tame and just ride around on his shoulder as he sets up their cage. It would be their new home. When that's done he makes sure everyone needing their hair and makeup done is there and takes a short nap as he waits for his turn. When he was woken up by Temari it was time for lunch. Grilled curried chicken with flat bread and seasoned rice with potatoes, carrots, onion and parsnips. It had feta cheese melted into it. There was also an apricot and tea served on the side. He goes back to napping until it's his turn and they somehow make his hair look thicker and more shiny. His hair was starting to grow back but it was still really thin and dull. They also do something with his eyes with a white pencil that made them look less bloodshot and made them stand out with a black one. They made his skin look less pasty with some sort of cream. The girl doing his face called it BB cream. They put something on his face so he didn't sweat it off and something on his lips to make them look a healthy color. Other than the eyes there wasn't really anything bold, and that was normal at the wedding of the Kazekage's family because they wanted to show you were a member of the family that had the magnet style Keki Genkai. By the time they finish it was 3:02 and he only had 8 minuets to get there and unlock the venue for the caterers. After rushing there, face shielded with a cloak so nobody would see it before the big event, he unlocks the door so they can start setting up. When the cake gets that he signs for that and make sure they get it to the table without incident. After that he goes back, makes sure the band knows the order of the songs, how many people were in the procession so they would know how long to take and makes sure the stage would work. Once the camera people got there and they knew what he wanted for pictures and video he was all set to go get dressed.

Once he gets to his dressing room Temari was there waiting, ready to help him. She had on a knee length lavender tunic that reached her knees with white detailing around the sleeves, neck and bottom, and her hair was down for once. After helping him get the darn thing on and those blasted complicated shoes. That thing went between the toe? The straps went through ghat loop on hid heel? Whatever. He just let her do it. After that he grabs the dove and let's everyone get lined up. The villages started arguing about who got to go first in the procession and Kankuro gives the guy who started the argument a dirty look. "Lord Tsuchikage, I appreciate that you are proud of your village but please refrain from using my wedding to try and further its reputation. It causes me great distress." He says, faking a small smile.

After getting the argument taken care of he gets everyone in the order that him and Rasa had agreed on during the rehearsal dinner. Last Gaara and Temari, before that Hinata and Shino, prior to that Rasa's friends from the stone then his friends from the mist and first the representatives from the Cloud village. Rasa gets everything ready on the other end and the music starts. There were two aisles that met up in the middle and met into one. First the representatives from the cloud walk out and when their a third of the way out the mist steps out. It continues on like this, each pair meeting half way down the aisle until it's finally Kankuro and Rasa's turn.

The walk down the aisle seemed to take forever. But with each step they got closer and closer. Until finally they made it to the end and take their place in front of the officiant. It was time to say their vows. They look into each other's eyes and the ceremony begins. "Dearly beloved; we're gathered here today in the presence of these witnesses to join these two men in the state of marriage. If anyone has any reason why they should not be joined please speak now or forever hold your peace." He says. A few moments later when nobody steps forward he says, "Let's continue. I understand you wrote your own vows. Lord Kazekage we'll start with you." He says. Rasa grabs a small slip of paper from Gaara. "Kankuro since the very beginning you have always been my light. You've always made me smile and always made me laugh. Your humor can bring a smile to even the most stoic of faces. There's so much about you that I love. Your so smart, your laugh. I can't even list everything about you. Your my world. And I would like to thank you for marrying me today and making me the happiest man in the world. He squeezes his hands a little and the officiant turns to Kankuro. "You may begin Kankuro. "Rasa I would like to say that the happiest man in the world right now is me. You've always been there for me through the good and the bad. You've guided me into the man I am today. Every day I spend with you gives me another memory to make me smile. Your strength gives me strength your smile is contagious. I love you so much and thank you for taking me today as your husband." He says.

"It's now time to exchange rings." He says and Temari and Gaara step forward with the doves, handing them to the officiant. He takes the dove with the golden ring and hands it to Kankuro and the one with the silver ring to Kankuro. "Do you Rasa take Kankuro to be your your lawfully wedded husband to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, for richer or for poorer, for better or worse, as long as you both shall live?" He asks. Rasa squeezes his hand, then slides the ring onto his finger. "I do." He says. The officiant then. Turns to Kankuro. "Do you Rasa take Kankuro to be your your lawfully wedded husband to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, for richer or for poorer, for better or worse, as long as you both shall live?" "I do." He says and slides the ring onto Rasa's finger.

"I now pronounce you married. You may now kiss your spouse and release the doves!" Says the officiant and the lovers lean into each other, lips pressing against each other's softly, at the same time gripping the ribbon attached to the other's ring and undoing the bow, pulling it out of the metal band. When the ribbons are discarded the doves are free and fly upward as they wrap their arms around each other, deepening the kiss. They fly higher and higher as Rasa runs his hand through Kankuro's hair, pulling him flush against him. As their eyes flutter closed the doves fly into the bedroom window of their home, perching in their cage. As Kankuro opens his mouth a little Gaara and Temari grab and pull two ropes, releasing a slew of white flower petals over them like snow in the desert.

When they pull apart the crowd claps and the petals keep falling all around them as they walk down the center aisle hand and hand toward the reception.

Okay well that one was fun to write. There will be smut in the near future. Either in the next chapter or the one after. And of course there will be babies! Muahahahaha! Please read and review. I would really love to know what my readers think so far. Writing a new chapter without reviews is like a big shot in the dark. Flames will be given to Sasuke so his balls of fire can one day be bigger than Itachi's.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: The After Party (And it's After Party)

Warning: there is a lemon in this chapter. Don't like it don't read it.

An hour into the reception everything was going well. The food was being served, people were giving toasts. Gaara and Temari had made speeches. So far everything was going well. Kankuro was picking at his plate but neither Temari or Gaara had said anything and Rasa understood it was still hard for him to eat in front of people. Then it was time for their first dance.

The music starts to play and the lights go down and the dance floor has a magical glow around it. The music was soft as Rasa takes his hands and pulls Kankuro to him, his hand moving to the small of his back. They stare into each others eyes and Kankuro puts one hand on Rasa's shoulder. They sweep around the floor and each movement was graceful as they dance around the floor, stealing quick kisses and gazing into each others eyes. Time seemed to slow down.

They just keep dancing until the song ends and they end it with a passionate kiss. When the lights come back up their in a full embrace. Everyone dances for a few hours. As a formality Kankuro also shares a dance with the other 4 Kages. They congratulate him. They give good wishes until his dance with Lady Hokage. She seemed a bit troubled by something. "Are you planning on having children Kankuro?" She asks. "Of course I am." He says. "Your really not in a physical state where you should. I'm worried about you." She says, her troubled thoughts showing on her brow. "I'm fine Tsunade. I'm getting better every day. I promise." He says, offering a soft smile. "Just wait a little while okay?" She asks. "When nature intends for it to happen it will happen. But if it helps your my first choice for care." He says. "Thanks kiddo." He says and squeezes his shoulder.

He dances with feudal lords. He dances with his friends. He dances with Rasa some more. At the end of all that it was time to cut the cake. They take the cake cutter in their hands and slice into it, each taking two small pieces for the fun part. When Rasa goes to pie him in the face he quickly ducks and pushes his cake into Rasa's face. They both laugh and behind Kankuro's back he catches the cake with the gold dust and brings it around to the side of Kankuro's face. It catches him off guard and they just start laughing and eating it off the others face. Wedding gifts were given. A few of them were embarrassing. It was all right though. It was generally a very happy occasion and around 10 people started going back to their hotel rooms. By 11, Rasa takes Kankuro by the hand and they slip out. Their walk home stopping and just looking at the stars, hugging, and gazing into each other's eyes.

When they get back to their now shared room Rasa attacks Kankuro's lips, their tongues engaging in a battle against each others, hands going everywhere, running through each other's hair, groping each other, and holding each other tightly. Rasa's hand finds the end of the fabric and starts unwrapping it from Kankuro's torso. As they move back Kankuro's back touches the wall, the kiss growing more needy and aggressive. Rasa's hand finds his nipple, rubbing the lightly tan nub of flesh until it's hard, his other hand in Kankuro's hair.

They pull apart for air, both gasping for breath as they lean their foreheads against one another's. After a moment Rasa picks up Kankuro, using his hips and the wall to support him, and starts tweaking and playing with his nipples until both are hard, sucking on his collar bone and gently biting it. Every touch was like a small jolt of electricity, leaving a tingling sensation on his skin. He can't stop a small moan from escaping his lips. Rasa could tell that despite of that incident in the past, Kankuro was a virgin. Nobody had ever touched him in this way. He takes extra care to takes things slow, still rolling his nipples between his thumbs and forefingers as he places his lips against his. He feels Kankuro's body responding to his touches, and moves his hands to his ass and carries him to the bed, lying him on the pillows. He keeps kissing him, one knee between his legs, pressed against his crotch, his hands on either side of his face. Their tongues were engaged in a fierce battle that Kankuro was quickly losing, turning into a mess of moans and mewling softly into his mouth. When Rasa finally dominates the kiss he starts trailing kisses down Kankuro's jaw. He lightly kisses down his neck and along his shoulder, and down his chest. He moves down to his left nipple and places a soft kiss on it and licks around the areola until it's hard and flicks the hard tip with his tongue before taking it into his mouth.

Kankuro moans unabashedly, the hardness of his sex rubbing against Rasa's stomach as he uses one of his hands to rub and twist the other nipple. After a minuet he moves his mouth over to the other side and uses his other hand to slowly remove the rest of the fabric that lie around his waist and was pleasantly surprised by Kankuro's lack of underwear. He takes his hard cock into his hand and strokes at an agonizingly slow pace, Kankuro's moans and small whines were like music to his ears. When he finishes his nipple he starts kissing and licking his way lower, and takes Kankuro's legs into his hands, rubbing small circles toward his crotch and back out to his knees before he pushes them apart softly, licking around his member and balls teasingly, but not touching them.

Kankuro moans and bucks his hips in frustration and Rasa puts three fingers in front of his mouth as he stops his licking momentarily to tell him, "Suck my fingers love." Once they were in his mouth he slowly lowers his mouth to the tip of his cock, licking the head and causing a particularly loud moan to resonate around his fingers. He sucks softly and used his tongue to rub along the bottom side and slowly moves his lips down along the shaft. As he does Kankuro lets out a particularly loud moan, releasing his now saliva coveted fingers. Rasa brings them down to Kankuro's entrance and slowly pushes the first one in, pumping it slowly in and out of his hole as he swirls his tongue around the head of his cock.

Kankuro's toes curl as he arches his back, eyes flying closed. Another finger was added and it was ecstasy. Rasa curls those fingers and starts sucking his balls softly. He scissors his fingers and licks up the shaft and takes the head back into his mouth and cries out in pleasure. He feels another finger join the two and they brush against something that makes him see stars. His eyes clamp shut as a low moan tears from his throat, back arching off the bed and his head thrown back in pleasure. "Found it." Rasa says with a grin, thrusting with his fingers as he crawls back over Kankuro, fingers still inside and kisses him on the mouth, still spreading him and stretching him with those fingers.

After pulling his lips from the other he removed his fingers and kisses him on the forehead and strokes his cheek then picks him up and puts him on the floor and sits on the edge of the bed in front of him, removing his own clothing and Rasa's hard cock was level with Kankuro's face. "Can you lube me up please?" He asks, putting his hands on Kankuro's cheeks. "I would love to." Says Kankuro, leaning in and licking the head of the other's cock tentatively and rubbing his balls. He takes the head into his mouth, sucking hard and rubbing the bottom with his tongue, slowly sliding his lips down along the shaft and bobbing his head. Rasa runs his hands through Kankuro's hair and takes hold softly, guiding his movements up and down his shaft, feeling it grow slicker and slicker with each bob of the head.

He stands up after a minuet and still holding onto Kankuro's hair, starts thrusting in and out of that hot mouth, moaning softly, careful about the younger man's gag reflex and giving him enough time to breathe. Kankuro gently squeezes his balls and runs his tongue along the bottom, loving having such a big hard cock in his mouth. Loving making Rasa feel so good. With his free hand he reaches down and starts playing with his own cock, moaning around the hard shaft of the other man. After a minuet Rasa pulls him off his cock and throws him back on the bed, climbing over him and kissing him roughly, holding onto his hair, sitting between his legs. Their tongues dance as Rasa's hands travel down, caressing his cheeks and ghosting over his chest, then roughly pinching his nipples, making Kankuro to squeal into the kiss and writhe in need. They keep traveling down to his hips, where one hand holds his hip down against the bed and the other reaches down for both their cocks, which he presses together and takes both into his hand, stroking slowly, both moaning into the kiss, which by now had grown sloppy in the passion and lasciviousness of the moment, both thrusting into Rasa's hand until he grabs hold of Kankuro's knees and breaks the kiss.

"Let me know if I'm going too fast." He says and lines the tip up with his hole, slowly pushing in. When he gets past the point where his fingers reached it became increasingly tight and Kankuro winces a little. Rasa stops and kisses his cheeks and let's his hands wander to his hips and rubs small circles in them. He longed to thrust in and burry himself completely in that tight heat but resisted the urge so he didn't hurt him, and just stays where he was at until Kankuro nods at him. "Okay. You can move." He says and wraps his arms around Rasa's neck, kissing his lips hungrily as rasa pushes himself balls deep into the smaller man and pauses to let him adjust.

They kiss each other lovingly and lustily, Kankuro loving the feeling of being so full of that hard cock and Rasa reveling in the tightness. Kankuro hooks his legs around the others hips and breaks the kiss first. "You can move now." He says and kisses the corner of his mouth. Rasa nods and kisses his cheek as he slowly withdraws until only the head was inside him and slowly pushes back in, pausing to let him adjust to the feeling and withdrawing once again, pushing back in at a different angle this time, looking for that spot. The third time Kakuro arches his back and his legs tighten around him as his fingers grip his hair. Now that he found his sweet spot he picks up the pace, lips locking with Kankuro's and holding onto his hips as he pounded into his prostate, slowly increasing the rhythm of his thrusts and pounding him harder and harder. Every thrust hit that magic spot inside of him, making his toes curl and his eyes open wide in unadulterated pleasure. Rasa reached down and started stroking his cock and licks his neck and sucks softly on his shoulder, leaving a red mark as his inner walls grew tighter and tighter around him. Both could feel a coil winding tighter and tighter in their stomachs as they drew closer and closer to the edge. "Mhmmmm~ Rasa! I'm goanna cum!" Kankuro cries, to which Rasa closes his thumb and forefinger firmly around his dick. "Hold on just a little longer babe." He says, pounding into him. Kankuro writhes around and thrusts his hips in desperate need of release as Rasa captures his lips in a sloppy kiss once again and with one last thrust, buries his cock in that sweet ass, letting go of his cock and covering Kankuro's inner walls with his seed. At the same time Kankuro blows his load all over Rasa and his chests, holding onto his shoulders and back arched off the bed.

They were both covered with a film of sweat and had hot cum spattered across their chests as they heave for breath, holding each other close and exchanging chats kisses. When their breathing finally regulates Rasa pulls out and picks up Kankuro bridal style and takes him to the bathroom, drawing a warm bath and having the maid change the sheets. While their in the warm water Rasa hugs Kankuro close and washes his back, kissing his forehead softly. "Your so beautiful." He says and runs a hand through his hair. "Thank you." He says, wrapping his arms around him tightly, yawning softly. It was in this moment that a change in Kankuro's chakra nature could be felt like a jolt of energy surging through him. If his chakra was normally light blue like his chakra threads, it felt more green now. This stirring sensation wakes him up a little more, and in his bewilderment at the sensation he attaches a chakra thread to a bar of soap. When he examines the thread it shows up a sparkling green color. At this time the sensation settled around his lower abdomen and Rasa can't help but smile, feeling that sensation too. Rasa's chakra had always been more gold, and he could feel the chakra forming and surging on his loves lower abdomen. He smiles and places his hand over it. The change in Kankuro's chakra was the beginnings of a precious third chakra.

"Kankuro. Do you know what this means?" He asks, rubbing the lower part of his abdomen. Kankuro looks at him questioningly. "Kanny. We're going to be parents."

Okay. So there's the sex. And finally Kan kitty is preggy. Debating on weather to make it twins. Please read and review and tell me weather it should be twins or not. That's done to death but I have an idea with the magnet style Keki Genkai that would be cute with twins. Flames will be used to set fire to the rain.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: A New Beginning

I would like to thank Suzie for reviewing. Reviews mean a lot to me so here's a cookie. ^^

Six weeks later Kankuro woke up at 9 in the morning to begin what had become his morning routine. The first thing he does is runs straight to the bathroom and throws up anything that may have been in his stomach. He leans over the porcelain throne and promptly starts heaving any remnants of his midnight snack as an offering to the toilet God. During this time, Rasa wakes up and comes in to comfort him as he waits for round two to hit. He rubs his back softly and wipes his forehead off with a damp wash cloth. By this time round two hits and he's just spewing gastric juices. When he's done he brushes his teeth and Rasa kisses his cheek. "Let's get you weighed." He says and Kankuro takes off his pajamas and steps on the scale. He certainly did look much better now. His body was still really lean, but he had some meat on his bones now. His back was smooth and had a very graceful arch to it now instead of being bent forward with his vertebrae sticking out and his collar bone, while still showing, didn't stick out any longer. He couldn't wrap his fingers around his arms any more and touch the opposing finger and rather than having a bridge of space along his hip bones that prevented the fabric from touching his abdomen, there was a pronounced v. His thighs still didn't touch but his hips were a bit on the wider side and the thigh gap was no longer sickly looking. There was a curve to his ass now and his cheeks, the ones on his face, hadn't been sunk in for some time. His hair was starting to get thick again and some color had come back to his cheeks. A lot of the scars had faded by now too with the help of scar reducing creams. A few troublesome ones remained but he looked healthy now. Rasa looks at the dial on the scale. The needle pointed to right before the 125. "Your at 124 pounds. This puts you right on track!" He says.

Since becoming pregnant it had been like a new beginning for Kankuro. He ate all his meals without protesting and had begun snacking so that he could get to a weight that would support healthy development for their growing child. He stopped hitting his head on the table or pulling at his hair when frustrated. He stopped sneaking the occasional smoke when stressed out. He had really turned over a new leaf. He even had the guts to pick up his case and managed to bring charges against two of his assailants. Rasa wraps his arms around him and just holds him close because he's so happy with the progress he's made. "I'm proud of you." He says. "You say that every morning you flirt." Says Kankuro and puts his head on the others shoulder. "But I mean it. You've come so far." He says, kissing the spot where his shoulder met his neck, which just makes Kankuro close his eyes and purr softly. Rasa just strokes his hair and hugs him tightly. "Wanna grab some breakfast?" He asks as Kankuro closes his eyes. "No. That would mean you have to stop hugging me." He says. "Feeling needy are we?" He asks, putting his pajamas back on him and picking up the smaller man and carrying him to their bed and crawling under the blankets with him and just holding him close. A maid normally came up to see if they needed anything in a few minuets. She's could just bring them breakfast. The colder season had hit last week and the wind outside blew crisp dry air off the ice from the mountains, leaving the land scape wind whipped and dry, yet freezing cold. It was the perfect time of year to light up a fire and cuddle in the mornings and the evenings.

When the maid comes, Rasa was holding Kankuro in front of him with Kankuro leaning back on his chest, two sets of hands on his stomach. "We would like breakfast here today." He says as she stokes the fire. She nods and goes to make their tray and they snuggle closer as Rasa kisses the top of Kankuro's head. The rumors were starting to float around about Kankuro having become pregnant, but there hadn't been a formal announcement yet. They planed on waiting another 6 weeks because that's when the pregnancy would be stabilized. So far Tsunade said both the mother and child were doing well but the first 12 weeks could be unsteady. But odds were if he made it 12 weeks the baby would make it. Kankuro's chakra threads had maintained their green color, meaning that the baby had inherited its father's chakra nature and that mixing with Kankuro's caused his to change color.

"I think it's time we tell Temari and Gaara their going to have a sibling." He says. "They should find out from us first hand." He says. "I didn't wanna tell then until we knew if the baby was goanna make it but with the rumors flying around I think it's time." He says. "Your right. Let's tell them now. I can hear Temari in the kitchen." He says and gets out of bed to call them in. "Gaara, Temari, can you two please come here?" He asks.

A few minuets later both siblings had arrived in their room, and they seated themselves in the sitting area near the fire place. Everyone had breakfast and hot chocolate. "Okay. What's going on? You never do this kind of thing." Temari asks suspiciously. "Well," Begins Kankuro, "We had something we needed to talk to you about. We wanted to wait a little while to tell you, but with the rumors floating around we figured now would be a better time." With that he puts his hands on his stomach and Rasa puts his hands atop Kankuro's. "The two of you are going to have another sibling." Rasa says and rubs Kan's tummy.

Gaara wasn't surprised. "So that's why you've gotten better so quickly." He says in his soft yet raspy voice. "I hope you realize that in the future my brother or sister is going to need you to remain healthy and for you to be a good example." He says. Temari nods in agreement. "Yeah. It will be watching you. And it will wanna be just like mommy." To this Kankuro nods his head. "Yeah. During these past few weeks I realized a couple things. The first is if it's not good for my baby, it's probably not good for me either. That's why I've been trying to eat and everything. It hasn't been easy because I also realized that I'm really sick and I'm not the only one who's been hurt as a result. Yet when I look in the mirror there are parts of me I don't like and want to change. But what's more important to me is the people around me who care. I've caused you all a lot of grief and for that I'm so sorry. It all started with the compulsion to have control after something went horribly, horribly wrong in my life. You know I haven't told you what it is but you do know that Rasa knows, so you've accepted that. But what I didn't realize was that it had started controlling me instead." He finishes his monologue with a sigh and Rasa puts a hand on his stomach and rubs it softly. Gaara nods a bit. "You always end up a slave to it in the end." To this Kankuro nods. "But by the time you realize your sick your already a slave."

There's a short silence as they take sips of their hot chocolate. "So how far along are you?" Asks Temari. "6 weeks." Says Kankuro and rubs his belly. "That's right around when you started improving." She says, the time frame starting to make sense to her. She hesitantly reaches over and places a hand on Kankuro's stomach, feeling the way the chakra flowed differently and smiles softly. Out of curiosity, Gaara's hand joins as well and they both smile, feeling the chakra of their little brother or sister. They seemed excited, and this makes the both of them breathe a sigh of relief. Temari was already being incredibly testy with her stepfather being a bit younger than her.

Though so far Rasa was happy with the way things had changed so far. They were settling into a dynamic that felt natural to everyone. And Rasa couldn't help but smile looking at the three of them. His children and his husband's face glowed in the morning light and from the flames of the fire. All their faces were alight with smiles, and his was the same. He wraps an arm around Kankuro's shoulder, smiling happily at the other's earlier words.

He had come to accept that he needed help. While Rasa detested his illness, he was overjoyed that he was finally getting better. And he finally understood that other people were hurt by his illness too. When Kankuro had been sick every battle to get nutrition into him had been emotionally exhausting. His heart felt like it had been breaking. When he had first found out, when he had first seen the unbelievable state his precious Kankuro had gotten to, something inside of him had shattered, but it also gave him the wake up call he needed. He was ashamed it took nearly losing someone he loved so dearly to alert him to his idiotic empty headedness. The irony that were it not for him becoming sick, they wouldn't be where they were today. Had Kankuro not given him that wake up call that fateful day, he never would have realized his own orientation. He never would have taken such extreme measures to change the laws, and what was perhaps the most terrifying to Rasa, was that he wouldn't be happily married or expecting another child. But it seemed that the way things got hundreds of times more difficult only paved the way to them getting a thousand times better. Like tearing out a bumpy and cracked road to repave it. Sometimes the most beautiful things could be begotten by the most horrible.

And now looking at Kankuro he couldn't wipe the grin off his face. His heart soared when he saw him smile. Each day he grew more and more beautiful. The way his face lit up when they were together made his stomach flutter with excitement. The way his hair blew in the breeze took his breath away. He swore to himself that he would protect him and this baby that he carried inside of him.

After Temari and Gaara finish their breakfast they go to do their missions, leaving Rasa to his thoughts and Kankuro to ask, "What's on your mind?" "Lots of things love." He says, holding him close and stroking his belly. "Lots of things and I don't know where to begin. I love you so much Kankuro. And I'm so proud of the progress you've made, and while I wouldn't change our being together like this for anything in the world, I wish it had come of less painful circumstances because you shouldn't have had to endure the pain you went through. I swear, when we're raising this child I'm going to do things differently. I'm going to listen more, I'm going to try to understand, I'm going to remember that it's value is in the fact that this is my child and how precious that is. Intelligence and skills as a Shinobi aren't everything. I was so hard on you, Gaara and Temari. I don't want to do anything to hurt this child. I wanna see changes in this village too Kanny..." He paused and pulled Kankuro close to him and kisses his forehead and then holds him close. "I wanna change the resources that are available to the people here. I doubt that what happened to you was an isolated incident... I know for a fact the persecution and bigotry still happens behind closed doors but I think it would be a good idea to maybe open some safe houses for youth and young adults who don't have a place to go in those situations. And I think there should be retraining on dealing with sexual assault. There were procedures in place and they weren't followed. I should have been notified by law enforcement. After evidence was collected you should have been taken to the hospital and given treatment." He shakes a little at the diary entry and the pain it had described, and by now there were tears in his eyes. "You should have had access to help even if I wasn't informed. There need to be places people can go to get help. I'm going to make some policies and change around some of our funding so the village can afford to provide these facilities. That way nobody will have to endure that again alone for years." At this point he was holding Kankuro tightly and not letting him go, one hand in that thick Burnett hair, holding his head against his chest protectively. "The value of the hidden sand is in its people. And it's my duty to take care of them like my own family. I promise you Kan, things haven't stopped changing around here yet." He says and takes a few deep breaths to steady himself. "I'm so proud of you though Kankuro. You just keep fighting. You had this fire when I found you. This spirt so strong it refused to be extinguished. You were so little and sickly and cold. But those eyes had a light in them that refused to give up. And that light is back now and words can't express how much I adore that. Your my light Kankuro. And every day that light is growing stronger and stronger. It inspires me every day to become a better man. It guides me along a path of becoming the best husband I can be to you, the best father I can be to out child, and the best leader I can be to this nation."

The words move Kankuro to tears. "Rasa, thank you so much. To hear that I inspire you so much..." He pauses, trying to find the right words. "It's because of you that I'm here today. From the very beginning of my life you've always been here being the one to make sure that I'm all right. You give me everything I need to succeed. We both grow into better people because of each other. And I'll be here to help you as things around here change and to work with you to make sure they do. We have a bond so deep that our growth feeds each other. I know that together we can make things around here change into a place that's safe. And even though bad things have without a doubt happened in my life I now know that good will come of it because your will to make this nation the best it can be is unshakable. When I was young, I always wanted to be like that. I learned to be strong from you. I've always had a fighting spirt, but I learned to endure from you." He says, wrapping his arms around Rasa and closing his eyes.

The moment was so tender that they just stayed there in each other's embrace for a while longer, exchanging a few soft kisses on the cheeks and feeling a closeness that joined their hearts together closer than even the tightest hug could bring them. It was after this that they finally got ready for the day, Rasa in his Kage robes and Kankuro in a pair of black pants and a long puppeteer robe with a blue sash. The both of them had desk work today. A man who had been on the council had recently stepped down and that left an opening in defensive planning, which Kankuro was more than capable of taking over and he immediately accepted the position when it had been offered. It would take him out of direct combat roles unless he elected to engage. But since he was pregnant planning village defenses still let him do his job as a Shinobi without putting their child in harms way. Things were indeed changing. But all these changes were for the better.

Please review. I have decided on something really awesome with the baby(s) and I'm not giving too much away. Flames will be used to burn my enemies houses. Thank you for reading.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Strength from Within

First I would like to thank dwellerofcrag for the encouraging review. *gives a cookie* You posed some interesting questions. I'll have to write about that when Kankuro has the baby(s). I'm not revealing the details yet though because I'm an evil mean horrible person. I would also like to thank my friend Ari for helping me with the previous chapter when I was a bit stuck on where to go with it and for the help with showing me facts about a relationship that I need to work on defining with Kankey and Rasa. Their the best and I wanna give them a truck full of ice cream and dumplings for being the best ever.

Two weeks later Rasa and Kankuro were on their lunch break. It had been a very difficult morning for the both of them. The paperwork was piled high on each man's desk after a sand storm had swept through the village and caused quite a bit of damage. It had destroyed several buildings and check points around the village and had taken out communication. Toppled over bricks looked like the blocks one might find scattered about a child's play room and seemed to have been knocked down just as easily as the aforementioned child's toys toward the south east border of the village. Thankfully that particular zone was mostly store houses and the odd factory so nobody had been in the buildings at the time they had collapsed, but tensions were high at this moment. Kankuro had called for it to be evacuated but now a large portion of the village's weaponry was underground and excavating the caches of supplies would be more costly than simply demolishing any remnants and rebuilding. This lead simple minded people to question why Kankuro hadn't called for an evacuation while the supplies could have still been relocated, when in reality sand storms were unpredictable phenomenon and this one blew in so quickly he had elected to save the lives of the people over relocating replaceable material goods. All the crap he was dealing with because of his choice had put the already hormonal Kankuro in a foul mood. His nausea wasn't helping to lift his spirits at all either. Nor was the tuna sandwich he smelled from the plate of his husband, which had taken any appetite he may have had and tossed it out the door as if it was yesterday's news.

"Eat your lunch." Rasa snaps, also in a foul mood because of the delays in communication and the estimated repair costs. "You eat something that doesn't smell like a dog pile then. That sandwich ruined my appetite. Where the hell do you get tuna in the middle of a desert any way?" Snaps Kankuro, taking his plate of dumplings to the counter and putting them in a storage container and washing his plate. "In a can at the store. And if it smells so offensive to you eat your lunch elsewhere." He says authoritatively. "You know," Kankuro responds, his threshold for bull shit having finally been reached, "not every meal I skip is because I'm sick. Sometimes my appetite is simply gone. And I guarantee you if I eat right now I'll be vomiting within ten minuets. Not only am I nauseous, but I'm under a lot of stress right now too. And what's more is I'll never get better if you micromanage every meal I eat. I may have needed that in the beginning, but I don't need it any more. You sometimes seem to have difficulty treating me as an equal. Yeah you raised me, but I'm not a child any more and I don't need to be told when to eat and how much. I don't need you to wipe my ass any more." Kankuro's response caused Rasa to drop his sandwich. "I do the things I do because I love you Kankuro. You couldn't keep your breakfast down so I really have to question your choice to skip lunch too. And to be frank I'm already a bit pissed off so much of the supply inventory was buried. And a lot of people are questioning why I put you in charge. They think it's just because we're married and they think someone else could have moved those supplies. And in hind sight, you probably could have set up a barrier or sealed them for future summoning. It didn't cross your mind and your new to the job, but that's still thousands of ryo." He says, taking a deep breath and running a hand through his hair in frustration. "I'm sorry. I fucked up. And I know you love me Rasa. But I don't need training wheels any more. I'm just asking for there to be a bit more trust between us. A relationship isn't one person taking care of the other. It's two people taking care of each other, even if their both perfectly capable of caring for themselves. They do it because they want to. Our relationship dynamic has changed from a child in need of care and his care taker to equals. And what's more is I'm not as sick as I used to be so in order to move forward I need room to make some of my own damn choices. If your still pissed about this and the supplies when I get back you can sleep on the couch tonight. Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do." He says, grabbing his shoes and scrolls to head out to check on the critical defense points and assess any damages.

At this point Rasa was livid and tosses his lunch in the trash before heading back to his office to do some more paper work, blowing through it as quickly as he could. Frankly the couch sounded like a good option. Not because what they were fighting about was huge, but because as much as he loved Kankuro, he was being bitchy right now. It wasn't that Rasa didn't trust that he could stand on his own so to speak. He knew Kankuro had gotten so much better. It was just that he would like to make sure Kankuro wouldn't trip or stumble. He knew he wouldn't fall again. But he still couldn't stop his instinct to protect. So at the heart of the matter was the fact that letting go scared him. He sighs and grabs another pile of paperwork and starts reading through it. It was an invoice for all the kuni, shurikin, senbon, smoke bombs and exploding tags stored in one of the collapsed buildings. He enters the numbers onto an inventory sheet that he was compiling from all six store houses to determine how much was lost and wether the cost of excavation would be more than just ordering more. And so far it seemed like digging them up would be the best option. He still had two more store houses to add to the list too.

At that present moment Kankuro had walked to a defense checkpoint a mile outside the village that had reported significant damage to assess the situation. It was a checkpoint they simply couldn't afford to lose. But when it came into view there was a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. It looked like the whole structure had been leveled. He would have to be careful where he stepped because there were levels below the surface and structural damage may have been incurred with the sand being loosened beneath some areas of the subterranean structure. He takes a careful step and the ground below him gives way, sending him falling through the ceiling of one of the rooms. What was that he had said about being careful where he stepped not a moment earlier? Mother fucker nothing seemed to be going his way today. The sand starts caving into the room. He quickly pulls himself to his hands and knees and into the adjoining room, bolting the door to keep the flow of sand from swallowing the whole structure. After putting himself out of immediate danger he sits down on the floor against the wall to evaluate the situation.

First question: was the baby okay? A fall like that could easily have hurt or even killed the unborn child. He puts his hand on his abdomen and checks the chakra flow. It felt the same as it has for these past 8 weeks, though as a puppet master, he had learned to feel emotion through the chakra threads of other puppet masters. The same concept, as of the past few days, had been operating the same way with his and the baby's joint chakra flow. His chakra ran into the baby, so his guess was that the baby could feel what he was feeling. That or the baby wasn't sensitive to the nature of chakra yet. But when the baby's chakra flowed out he could read what the baby was feeling. Thus far the feelings weren't well developed, nor was there any conscious thought, but the fall had scared the child. He took that as a good sign though. Fear meant alive. He didn't feel any pain either. He knew the nervous system was developing and if the baby was injured he would feel it through the signals in it's chakra, seeing as it had some growing pains lately from the growing limbs. But it was just fine and that brought a level of calm to him that wasn't quite natural given the situation he was in. He knew that in order to get out of this alive though, he had to stay calm.

The next question he had to ask himself, was he okay? He takes off his shoes to look at his ankles and rolls his pants up to look at he knees. Right leg was good. He landed on his left side though, and the ankle looked a bit swollen. There was no bruising though and it seemed to be moving just fine. Probably a sprain. He feels along his torso to check for bruising and broken ribs. He was a bit sore but nothing seemed to have been rearranged during the fall. His arms seemed to be working fine. His head had landed on his arms rather than hitting the floor. It seemed he had landed just right. Another sigh of relief was in order. "See kiddo? We're fine, no need to be scared." He says, making his chakra calm down so it would soothe the baby's. He lets himself take a minuet to just lean back and calm down.

After his heart stops pounding and he catches his breath, it was time to orientate himself to the lack of lighting. He opens his eyes and takes a look around. It was simply no good though. He reaches into his side bag and grabs a light stick and cracks it to make the stick glow. Then he looks around to see what was occupying the room to discover it's purpose. It seemed he had locked himself in a storage closet. Well wasn't that just great? He had trapped himself.

'Okay. How can I get out of here?' He thinks to himself and looks around. There was a large vent on the floor that he could crawl through to the next room. If he waited around for rescue this could become his tomb. He throws a poison gas bomb into the vent and puts on a gas mask. That way any venomous insects wouldn't pose any danger. After that he crawls into the vent and crawls about 15 feet to the next large opening. It was a bathroom. The next thing he does is pulls out a blue print to find out where exactly he was at. First locate two vents 15 feet apart on the ventilation blue print, then look at the floor plan and find a janitor closest and bathroom corresponding to those vents and... Bingo. He was on the third floor below ground about 10 rooms away from the stair well. Now to get to his feet since he didn't have to crawl any more. He stands up and oh holy shit! Back on his ass again. Yeah. That ankle was sprained. He looks around to find something to stand with. That bit of wood would do. He looks down at his watch. He had already been down here three hours?

It was at this point where Rasa started to grow worried. He was only supposed to be gone a half hour. Yet three hours later Kankuro still wasn't at his desk. At first he thought maybe it was because they had argued. Maybe he was taking care of errands that took him out of office to avoid another argument. Maybe he had a meeting with someone in public safety about the outposts. Maybe someone from intelligence had found a threat to village defenses. He checked with everyone he might be meeting with and so far nobody had seen head nor tail of him. By this point he was worried and sent a few of his anbu to check the outpost and the news wasn't good. It appeared that there was a cave in. Near the sight they found one of Kankuro's sealing scrolls. He had been caught in the cave in. A rescue party was quickly organized but they didn't provide Rasa with much hope. They instructed him to prepare for the worst. If he had been buried than he would have asphyxiated within a minuet, and the area of the out post he had fallen into was secured with an sealed door that required a punch code to get in and out of in many different places because of secure intelligence and communication channels. In short things didn't look good.

Rasa needed time to process this. Odds were the man he loved so dearly had passed on. He could still hold out hope, but the whole situation made his stomach churn. After walking to a near by boulder he braces his arms on it to try and regain his ability to breathe, clenching his eyes in frustration at the tears forming. It did little good and they still trickled out of the tightly shut eyes. Kankuro had fought so hard and clung to life only months ago. He grappled tooth and nail to live. To think that could all be undone by one misstep. He had learned to stand on his own two feet even if he was still protective of him. It was only because he loved him though and didn't want to put him on his own too soon. They had fallen in love. A kind of love he had never known where both changed for as a result of the other changing for the better. Their souls were connected as though they were on the same wave length. They were expecting a child. Kankuro was nearly a quarter of the way through his pregnancy. Now he was helpless to do anything to save him. All he could do was what Kankuro had asked him to do earlier. He had to put his trust in Kankuro to be able to stand on his own two feet.

It was during this time that Kankuro managed to hobble to the stair case that connected this floor to the second floor. They looked to be sealed with a key pad door, as had most of the doors on this floor. He consults the blue prints again and finds another ventilation shaft near by that ran air down to this level and looks for hand holds to climb up. No good. He tosses a poison flare in the vent, still using his mask to breathe, and mulls over the problem. He couldn't brace his back against the wall of the vent and walk up. His ankle was too sore for that and he didn't yet know if he had done any serious damage to his ankle. He could wait for rescue but the ventilation system wasn't running and he didn't know how much breathable air was left. An air filtering mask wouldn't help at all with no oxygen left. He looks through the content of his bag and finds three kuni, 8 shurikin, 40 senbon and some trip wire. He shines his light up the shaft and down it. Several scorpions had fallen to the bottom of the shaft with the poison. Now that they were taken care of was safe to climb up. He also sees a triple bladed fan at the top that wasn't running. So he cuts the trip wire into three pieces and attached his shurikin to it. Then he throws them up so the shurikin wrap the wire around the bracings of the fan and grab hold like small grappling hooks and attaches his three kuni to each wire with a loop knot that slid up, but not down. He checks the electrical blue print and doesn't find any power wires running congruent to the vent and then attaches the kuni to his hands and his good foot with chakra threads and digs them into the vent. He dug them higher and higher, using them as hand holds until he makes it to the fan, where he removed the blades and tosses them to the bottom so he doesn't cut himself on them and climbs through. The opening it created into the second floor system and looks for an opening. After a bit of crawling around he slithers out into the housing area with bunk beds stacked three high. From the items left inside this was the men's barracks. He locates that on the blue print and plots out a route to the stairs, which were again on the opposite side of the base.

He pulls himself to his feet again and balances his weight on the piece of wood and hobbles through the sleeping quarters to a multipurpose room where there were some pool tables and a few miscellaneous items for entertainment. He couldn't help but notice the drastic change in grade of the surface on which he was limping. A few of the lighter items had slid along the slanted floor before coming to a stop along the wall. It was slanted to such a degree that he had to use his kuni to chip a hole in the door big enough to climb through because the door leading to the mess hall was stuck. The mess hall was in even worse shape than the room he had just come from, but was fortunate enough for this door to be stuck open because of a pile of debris holding the door ajar. He climbs over that and pauses for a moment to rub his belly. "I promise. I'll get you out of here sweet heart." He says and takes a few deep breaths, tears of stress running down his face. After making it through the hall and through an administrative office he comes into a lobby to find that the stairwell had been blocked by rocks. And they weren't stationary. The structure was beginning to cave. He reaches and grabs one of the scrolls off his back and summons his largest puppet: salamander. He climbs inside to control it, making it start digging through the rocks.

Up on the surface the rumbles of shifting ground and falling sand could be heard as the rescue team climbs out of the shifting hole, that was quickly sinking further into the ground. "Sir," says Baki, half his face concealed but an expression of deepest regret on the visible portion of his face. It was evident even through his red face paint. "There's a hole going into a deep chasm underground, and the structure has begun sinking. There's a hole in the bottom of the floor where Kankuro fell leading right to it... It's highly unlikely that we'll ever find anything. We've been looking for 9 hours now. I think it's time we head back." He says, putting his hand on Rasa's shoulder. At this the dam breaks and the tears flood out. "No Baki. You take your team and go back to the village if you want." He says, letting his gold dust out of the canister he carried. "I'm staying right here until that outpost is gone. I trust Kankuro. I have faith in him. He's smart and I'll never leave him behind. He'll make it out. We just have to believe in him. You'll see." He sobs, sending the dust through a crack in the wall large enough for a person to squeeze through and creating multiple trails that would catch anyone's attention who was inside, leading them to an exit and holding up the slipping structure with even more dust, biding time. If Kankuro was alive, if he was moving, which Rasa placed his utmost faith in, he would know where the exit was. Minuets later, Rasa and Baki were the only ones who remained as the structure became increasingly heavy.

Kankuro eventually digs his way out of the rubble blocking the stair well and pulls himself out of the puppet to a sight that makes his eyes water. A trail of gold. He reaches out and touches the swirling particles and reseals salamander and limps along side the gold dust, rounding corners, through a hall and into a filing room. The floor shakes and he can feel the floor beneath him shaking. Each step was careful so he didn't fall back through. He was so close to a crack in the wall when he feels the ground beneath him slipping. He dives for the crack, landing on solid ground. He lies down on his back and looks up at the stars. Outside. Free. Safe.

Not a moment later the crunch and gut wrenching squeak of nails on a chalk board could be heard as the outpost sinks into the bowls of the earth, metal bending and screeching, wood snapping, and cement cracking. As he was still trying to process this a pair of loving arms wraps around him. He opens his eyes to the last of the outpost falling into a newly opened ravine and leans his head back against Rasa's shoulder. The only words that he can bring himself to say were "holy shit!" The response he got was a tighter hug and he turns around and hugs back, both holding each other so tight with fist fulls of the other's clothing.

It's a few minuets before either of them speak. "How did you know I was still_." Kankuro starts, but is silenced by a pair of lips covering his. "Because I trust you Kankuro. You wouldn't ever die so easily. You were right. I've been overbearing lately, but that's because I love you, and because of that I have a hard time letting go. It's not because I don't trust you. Its because nobody wants to let go of something precious. It's their instinct to protect. But you have a strength from within that lets you blaze ahead. I love that about you Kanny." He says and takes Kankuro to the boulder from earlier and looking at his ankle. He would definitely be off his feet for a little while so Rasa piggy backs him back to the village.

"Rasa?" Asks Kankuro, yawning loudly. "Yeah babe?" Asks the older man. "Don't you dare sleep on the couch tonight."

Okay that was a long chapter but I had the inspiration to write this and an unyielding thirst for some creative and adventure filled writing after doing a boring hum drum academic piece. I hope you like it. I wanted to write something action packed while also showing that Kankuro is well enough to stand on his own now, even if Rasa is on the protective side. As always be sure to review. Flames will be used to make my YOUTH burn even hotter. Stay tuned for chapter 11 and QUACK QUACK MOTHER FUCKERS. P.S. No Ari I still haven't forgotten that.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Winds of Change

More thanks to dwellerofcrag for reviewing. ^^ *gives ice cream* I think all Kan's puppets are cute in an ugly sort of way. By the way everyone, forgive me if this chapter sucks.

A week later Kankuro had gathered up his notes on the previous weeks events and had called for a meeting with the relevant officials in the village. This included the war council, meteorology, demolition experts, intelligence and engineers, along with the Kazekage. It was Kankuro's job to assess weather there was a threat to the village and he sure had his suspicions right now. He had his notes in front of him that indicated something was amiss. He was now 9 weeks pregnant and was beginning to show a bit so he had started wearing something a bit baggier around the mid section to make it unnoticeable during the meeting and therefore eliminating any chance of it becoming a distraction or gathering attention before he was ready for people to know. His crutches from what has apparently a fracture until medical ninjutsu had mended the bone. leaned against the back of his chair and his foot rested on the table in a splint and with an ice pack. It was still broken and the new bone hadn't yet hardened. His other leg was crossed over the one on the table as he leaned back in the chair with his notes propped up on his leg so he could read them from his lap.

He was seated to the right of Rasa and to the left of the head of intelligence. Next to him was the head of the engineering corps. Then metrology, then the head of the war council, and so on and so forth. The point everyone was there and seated at a circular table to make discussion easier. Kankuro passes out a packet of his notes. "I'm sure your all aware of the recent events regarding our weather and the damage it caused. If your not I highly suggest you get yer head out of yer ass." Kankuro begins, still not being the biggest stickler for etiquette. "But going over the data I realized some things were really off about the whole situation. There are parts of it that don't make sense at all. If you'll open to the first page, ladies and gentleman, and tell me what you see please?" He asks and there was a picture there of the store houses. "What are we supposed to be looking for Kankuro. It's a building toppled by a sand storm." Says Rasa. "Exactly. By a sand storm." He says. There were still a few blank looks but understanding dawned on Rasa, Baki, who was head of the war council, and the chief meteorologist. At the blank looks Kankuro tries not to smack himself in the forehead in frustration. "And if those buildings were knocked down during a sand storm they should be covered in?"

"...Paper?" Asks one of the heads and at this Kankuro can't stop the face palm. "No! If they were knocked down in a sand storm they should be covered in sand! Everyone was so busy wigging out over the supplies that the fact the fallen buildings had no sand on them was completely overlooked. Furthermore take a look at these shots I had Gaara take from the air." He says. Rasa's brow creases. "Something isn't right but I can't figure out what." He says. "I can't either. But something does seem amiss." Admits Baki. "It's the buildings." Says the meteorology chief. "They all fell in different directions. If it were a sand storm they would have been hit with the wind and sand from one direction and would have all fell that way like dominos. These buildings fall like dominos from a focal point starting in the middle and working out." She says. "It looks like the focal point of an earth quake to me. That or a bomb went off." She says. "The next thing we have to examine is this." Says Kankuro, flipping the page to a picture of the ravine. "Could an ordinary sand storm cause significant changes to local geology like this?" He asks. "And further more would this bust open in a matter of a day? From a sand storm?" He asks, looking at the new crack in the earth that had nearly swallowed him up.

The meteorologist shakes her head. "It may cause a small crack but nothing to this degree." She says. "Also, no stress points were detected when that out post was built." Says the chief engineer. "We chose that location because of its geological stability since that would be of dire importance with a subterranean base. We didn't want a location where there would be cave ins." Kankuro nods and turns to the chief of demolition. "What does this look like to you?" He asks, handing him a picture. "Well I see chipping on the rock face on this portion of the ravine. The chipping goes all the way to a band of lighter colored rocks." He says and points it out to the engineer. "I think there was a geological survey here and samples were collected because there were some concerns about a small vein of talc. It was small though and shouldn't have been problematic." He says. "How many people had access to that information?" Asks Kankuro. "I'll get you a personal list after the meeting." Says the engineering head. "Does Demolition think that this vein could have something to do with it?" He asks. "Absolutely. When the engineering corps have to get past a cliff or something for some sort of utility line, say water lines for irrigation, and they need us to demolish a whole cliff, we find a vein of soft minerals, flush it out and stuff it with paper bombs and throw a rock and it levels everything. It's usually not this neat, but that's one hard rock to blow off the earth that your base was sitting on. Looks like it was sitting on flint or something in that family. A hard rock that cleaves neatly when it breaks is what you got. Pumping a lose vein full of exploding tags in that puppy woulda only cracked her open along one of the points she would cleave. This could pose a danger to the village in the distant future too." He says, studying the photograph. The engineer nods his head, looking at his copy and turns to the meteorologist. "If we have a large quake and it keeps cracking everyone could be in serious danger. It will continue to cleave along that line. If this was an act of war we should keep this spot guarded. It could very easily be used to swallow up the whole village." Rasa looks like he was deep in thought. "What if we moved the village."

There's a long silence before someone finally says, "Are you insane!?" Rasa shakes his head. "My predecessor already had plans and a location. A box canyon has its advantages like being easy to defend from the ground, but from the air it would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Exit space is limited so if we ever come under attack from the air our attackers could easily pick us off. We're it not for our entry and exit points, this place would flood every year, giving us up to 15 square miles of water. And now we have the added threat of the earth splitting open. The third already picked an oasis that has more water than we do now. It has stable ground to move the foundations too and is in an ideal location for village defense. The plan was approved. He disappeared before it could be completed though." He says. "Rasa are you sure you'd be able to coordinate such a large undertaking? During the move everyone would be so vulnerable. This is going to take so much planning." Says Kan and takes his hand. "I'm not goanna move it by myself Kanny. I'm not God. But I could really use your help laying down the plans. I think with a mind like yours involved in the planning we can come up with something fool proof." He says. "Well then let's come up with something and put it to a vote." Says Rasa. "Something of this scale is going to take a lot of time." Says Kankuro, taking his foot off the table since the ice had melted, scooting his seat forward and putting the notes on the table.

"Any way, now that that's on the table let's look at what else we have going on here. I have one last bit of evidence and this one is a bit more disturbing than the rest." He says and everyone flips to the next page in their packets. It was a bunch of pictures of the sand storm. "Everything looks dark during these things. So it was hard to notice this because the sand blocks out the light, but I recovered this shot from the security tapes at one of the store houses." He says. The photograph showed a swirling mass of small particles. What was most noteworthy about them was the black color. With the sun blocked out by sand something like that would have been undetectable, but seeing it approaching made it all together different. He looks around the room and gauges everyone's reaction. "Ladies and gentlemen, this looks like magnet style." Says Kan. Then flips to the next photograph. A magnet placed next to a brick from the store house and several black particles being removed. They look and see that picture as well and the color continues to drain from their faces. "The samples were taken to the lab and tested." Says Kankuro, reaching into his baggy sleeve and pulling out the vile of particles. "Ladies and gentlemen. It's iron. Somehow, some way, somebody is using Lord Third's jutsu to attack this village. We don't know this person's or group's reason and we don't know their end game. But what I do know is that something as big as this attack was carried out right under our noses. This was either carried out by a specialized sabotage unit from another village, or an act of terrorism. I've done through background checks on everyone here and had everyone here tailed for a week to make sure nothing suspicious is happening. Your all in the clear. But not a word of this to anyone until we know what we're dealing with. The warehouses are being excavated. Maybe we'll find more clues inside. For now my investigation is ongoing. I want everyone to keep their eyes peeled though." He declares, closing his file.

Now it was time to divide up tasks. "Now we have to cover how exactly we're going to be moving forward and investigating in secret. We need to find out what exactly was done at that base to make such a big ravine. I want engineering to put together a unit under the pretense of mapping out that ravine and assessing the threat it may pose to the village. Clear everyone in the unit of potential involvement prior to the beginning of the investigation. While your in there take samples from the former talc vein and see if there's explosive residue. If possible determine the device used. If at all possible find any evidence from the base now that you know we're looking for sabotage rather than looking at a natural disaster. I don't want any shinobi who may have been stationed there as part of that unit. I know that it's a shot in the dark at this point but even a small clue is better than nothing at all. Document anything out of the ordinary though. Even if it doesn't fit now it may fit later." He says. "Understood sir. I'll begin organizing a unit right away. I'll also have the personal list of anyone who was involved in the geological survey on your desk tomorrow morning. I'll cross check that list with anyone who was stationed on that base too." Says the head of engineering. "Thank you." Says Kankuro and turns to the head of intelligence. "I want you running background checks on everyone who worked on that base and worked in those store houses. Look for people with ties to extremist groups and any two people with unusual ties who worked those locations. Look into the people in the village on our watch lists too. Two locations were hit and I don't think this could have been the work of one person." Kankuro orders. "Also look into extremist groups in other villages in the wind nation. Who ever is responsible may still be here if their a citizen." "Yes sir. I'll get on that right away." He says and goes to the files room and pulls the personal files from the two locations to compile a personnel list and to cross check the individuals with any data bases they had.

Next Rasa turns to Baki, head of the war council. "Depending on our results we may be dealing with an act of war or an act of terror. Either way we'll probably need you ready to act. Work with Kankuro on guarding key locations around the village and tighten security around our borders. Have shinobi guarding villages shinobi clans base themselves out of. While your at it have them look for signs of unrest and suspicious activity. You already know to make sure the soldiers you send out are loyal. I trust you know what to do." Baki nods. "Yes Rasa Sama. I'll begin putting the game pieces on the board." He says and goes to start arranging troops. "Demolition, I want you to take inventory of the weapons when excavation is complete. If anything is missing let me or Kankuro know right away. I want to know which building the missing inventory came from too. Each building had a different supplier. Look for anything out of norm that may have been over looked." He hands him the inventory spread sheet he had made. "This is what was in there before. This will help you calculate percentages. We need to know how much, if anything is missing, that we're looking for." Rasa instructs him and turns to the head of metrology. "Alert me if anymore sand storms are discovered anywhere else." "Yes my lord." She says and goes to the sensory department to feel for any more. He says and then turns to Kankuro. "And you my dear, keep up the good work. You stumbled on a real puzzle. Don't stop digging until all the pieces fit. Also, we'll meet later to discuss the best course of action to relocate this village. The location I have in mind is a day and a half away. It would be a safe distance from the ravine. The chakra use would be enormous. But I think it's the best course considering the probable threat." Rasa Says. "I'll get to brain storming after I get us some lunch. Rasa couldn't help but grin. "Of course love. What do you want?" He asks, handing him his crutches. "I won't know till I start cooking. Baby is saying eat and I'll know what it wants when I start cooking." He says. "Oh boy. Should I get my gas mask?" Rasa jokes, causing Kankuro to laugh as he pulls himself to his feet and positions his crutches to support his weight.

"Nope. I'm not making anything like that." He says and makes his way toward the door. "Okay then. Want me to carry your files?" He asks. "That would be great. Also, if you could get the doors for me that would also be awesome." He says and Rasa picks up the files and kisses him on the cheek before grabbing the door for him. "How are you goanna cook if you can't open the door?" He teases. "I'll figure that out when we get to the kitchen." He says and places his crutches in front of him and moving forward on his good leg. Rasa just smiles. This would be interesting to see. Interesting indeed.

A few minuets later, Kankuro was in the kitchen grabbing some supplies with his chakra threads. A pan gets put on the stove with one green thread. Another one pours a tiny bit of oil on the pan, a third thread opens the freezer and grabs some blanched spinach, another grabs yogurt, and onions while yet another grabs the spice basket. So far he didn't see any meat. Kan grabs a knife and starts chopping the onion real thin and minces a couple cloves of garlic and chops some cilantro. He cooks them until they were fragrant but hadn't changed colors. He adds the yogurt and raises an eyebrow and looks at the tub. Plain yogurt. Was he making vegetarian curry? He put the wilted spinach in the food processor and held the button to process it down until it was a paste with a chakra thread as he added cumin, fenugreek, tumeric, curry powder, salt, and white pepper. Then he grabs some fresh paneer cheese and dices it and adds or to the curry. Palak panneer was finished, but neither him nor Kankuro were the biggest fan of meatless dishes and Kankuro wasn't done yet. There was a pot roast left over from the previous night. It had some very flavorful beef in it that just pulled apart. And he takes about half of it and shreds it and stirs it in to the curry. "Well it smells good, but beef and yogurt?" Asks Rasa. Kankuro shrugs. "I don't question it." As he says it he grabs a spoon and takes a tentative bite and at first was careful, but then starts chewing the meat. "Okay. This is actually pretty good. It makes palak paneer actually taste like a full meal and not a snack." Says the meat over and fills two bowls with rice and pours the curry over it. After grabbing pieces of flat bread and two tea cups and heating up the water they were set. Rasa grabs everything they needed for tea nervously. Meat he liked, vegetables he did not. And what was with the spinach? Kankuro hated spinach. He refused to eat it as a child. He was having cravings maybe? Maybe he was craving iron and minerals he could only get from vegetables? And calcium? That made sense. He was growing a person with a skeleton. All the calcium, iron and protein he could get was going to the tiny human they had made. But he still didn't get why he would choose spinach. Kankuro had said before that even D rank missions were better than spinach. Must be the baby. He shrugs and takes a bite. What do you know? This was actually good. Vegetarians would be livid if they saw such a favorite and classical dish tainted by meat, but it was wonderful. Especially with the curry powder and the fresh cheese cubes. Kankuro really had some killer skills in the kitchen. He was goanna be a great mother. If he could make him enjoy a vegetable he had done the impossible.

"I thought you hate spinach Kan." Says Rasa, taking another bite as Kan fixes himself some tea. "I did. But these past couple days I can't get enough." He says and goes to take a sip of the plain tea. Rasa takes the cup. "You didn't always drink it like this you know. Just try it how you used to." He says and puts some sugar and a little bit of condensed milk to it and puts the cup back in his hands. Kankuro smiles and takes a sip. "I forgot how much I enjoyed this." He says, taking another sip and placing the tea cup down. He just smiles and kisses his cheek. "Glad I could help you remember." He says and ruffles his hair. They had made it a rule that they don't talk about work while they weren't working, so lunch was married couple time for them. "So how's the baby doing." Rasa asks, undoing the tie on his kimono to get at his stomach, putting his cheek against it. Kankuro chuckles a bit. "It's still having some growing pains and it gets excited when it hears you talk. The chakra exchange is still going the same as it does with chakra threads. It still doesn't have well formed thoughts, but it definitely has some sort of attachment to you. Something has really been annoying it though lately. I think it's the cord. The best way I can describe it is claustrophobic. It's hard to figure out what though without conscious thought." He says as Rasa hugs him and kisses the itty bitty bump. "I don't think it can feel you yet but it can hear you." He says as Kankuro takes another bite of his lunch. "Your food is goanna get cold. I know your excited but can bonding happen after eating?" He asks, still having a grin on his face though. "Yeah of course." He says and takes his head off Kankuro's lap, getting off the floor and going back to his chair. As this happens Kankuro feels something strange.

"Something the matter love?" He asks, raising an eyebrow. "Nothing. The kid just had mixed emotions about you leaving. On one hand I feel sad from its chakra and on the other I feel happy because the ears don't hurt." He says. "It's cognitive abilities must be getting further developed." He says, taking a sip of his tea, rubbing his belly. "Hmmm. Must be. I'll be quieter next time." He says and takes another bite of his lunch. Before they could further contemplate the thoughts of their unborn child any further though, the head of demolition comes in with the spread sheet and bows. So much for family time. "Sir, we've finished the excavation." He says. His face was as white as the paper he held and the perspiration on his brow was clearly visible. The news obviously wasn't good. "What's the damage?" Rasa asks, taking a deep breath and bracing for the worst. "About 25 percent of the supplies are unaccounted for. The missing weapons are from all store houses too. This is either a ring, or someone with access to all six store houses." He says. Both Kankuro and rasa Suck in a breath, expecting there to be some missing supplies, but not for a whole quarter of the village's weapons to have gone missing. But the worst was yet to come.

"And Rasa sama, Lord Kankuro, over half of the missing stock is paper bombs." A chill runs down born their spines. Kankuro quickly raised village security.

Okay. Thank you all. I know this wasn't exactly the most exciting chapter I've written but it does set the stage for more exciting ones. Please read and review. Critiques are welcome but flames are not. Too many missing paper bombs for that shit.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Turning Up the Heat

Special thanks to: dwellerofcrag again for reviewing. It would be so convenient to use chakra threads to cook with right? And the fact he hates spinach is canon. It's listed as his least favorite food. Both Kankuro and Rasa are meat lovers. Also, special thanks to Ari because monster.

Also warning: there's a bit of smut in this chapter. Not quite a lemon. It's more like a limeom? Is that even a thing? Duck it. It is now. Dick? Lol! Quack quack mother fuckers.

Wait a moment... God damn it I say duck when I want to say fuck and dick when I mean duck... Yes I write this on my phone.

Two weeks after the start of the investigation things were running pretty stagnant. Forensic work took time. Lab results still had to come back and background checks were still being done. Everything had to be done by hand since computers weren't yet practical and therefore were unavailable to speed up investigation. It was, in short, a long process that had everyone on the investigative team anxious. After all who said it would stop at just one attack? Nobody. One would be a fool to think that one attack would be the end.

It was the beginning of another long day of waiting and Rasa still hadn't gotten out of bed. It was 5:00 in the morning so getting out would have been an early start, but that would mean finishing the day's work earlier. That seemed like the obvious choice, but his husband had latched onto his arm as he slept and was holding onto the limb with the most adorable grin on his face and his leg was draped over his own and prevented him from rising. He must have gotten cold last night.

He smiles a little, moving a bit of hair off Kankuro's face with his free hand and letting it rest on his belly. With the shirt rising up the way it had in his sleep, exposing his stomach, the presence of the small child within his love's body was obvious. The raised expanse of flesh was firm rather than squishy and didn't wiggle when poked. It didn't hang over like a muffin top but the skin was stretched taunt, yet the skin was still supple as Kankuro had made sure to apply moisturizer several times a day. He didn't want too many stretch marks. The bump wasn't large yet, but the evidence that their child was growing was becoming more and more obvious each passing week. It was such an exciting time. And in a week they would pass the danger zone. Actually it was less than that. There were only 5 days until he hit the 12 week mark, and the little baby was already a fourth of the way grown. To think that a human being could develop so fast amazed him. To think that eyes, brains, nerves, muscles, bones, organs, skin, nails, hair, fingers and toes complete with a personality and soul all wrapped into what was averaged to be an 8 pound bundle of joy in a time period as short as 40 weeks was incredible. And the fact that the child currently growing within Kankuro was half of himself both overjoyed and terrified Rasa at the same time.

It was as the hand on his belly was rubbing the flesh housing their child was gently rubbed that Kankuro awoke, a loud yawn sounding in Rasa's ear as the arms holding his own captive released his to stretch, extending over Kankuro's head to hit him in the face. He winced a little at the pain and pushes his hand away from his face. "Morning sunshine." He mutters as he rubs his jaw as Kankuro tries to push the haze from his conciseness. He stares at him a moment, wondering why he was holding his fist and rubbing his face, and after about 20 seconds understanding dawns on him and he sits up. "Oh my gosh I'm so sorry!" He says and withdraws his hand and sits up, kissing his cheek where he had hit him apologetically.

"Your fine. You were being cute this morning. Were you cold last night or something?" He asks, ruffling his hair a bit before grabbing his robe and slippers and getting up to get some breakfast started for them as Kankuro nods and looks around for his. "You threw them on the floor last night." Rasa reminds him and tosses them to him before heading to the kitchen while Kankuro heads to the bathroom to shower, stripping out of his PJ's and setting his robe and towel on the hook, his slippers on the floor and his boxers on the counter next to the sink. While Rasa made some soup, rice and the rare treat of some fresh herring, Kankuro shampoos, shaves, conditions his hair and rinses off and grabs his towel and dries himself off and looks at himself from the side and sighs. He knew that that belly was from there being a baby but it was still hard to look at an expanding waist. After drying his hair off he takes a deep breath and steps on the scale. There was nothing in his stomach to mess up the measurement, so the number would be accurate. He hadn't looked at the number in a long time. Rasa would do that for him. But he had to stop letting a number control him. He had to stop fearing the scale. He was a shinobi after all. Why should he be afraid of the scale? He shouldn't. He should be living his life for himself, his husband, his child, his siblings and his nation. Not for a number on a dial. It was time for him to take back even more of what his illness had taken from him. He had taken back his family, he had taken back his mind, he had taken back his thoughts, he had taken back his body, and he had taken back his independence. Now, 5 months after he had started fighting it, it was time to reclaim something that he had been working on since day one. His courage. Every step of the way, he had help. But now, it was just him. This was something only he could do for himself. So with a deep breath, he steps on the scale, eyes closed.

He takes a deep breath and opens his eyes. He weighed 132 pounds. That was all? He had wigged himself out over nothing. He couldn't believe how easy it was to open his eyes. But then again, why had it been so hard to keep them open in the past? He didn't understand that, but that only made him smile. If he didn't understand it, he was nowhere near where he used to be. But still 132 didn't seem right to him this far into the pregnancy. He should be more. He would have to eat well these next few days.

He lotions up and throws on his robe, slippers and boxers as he goes to the kitchen for breakfast and sits down with the paper. "Rasa do you think 132 pounds is too light at this point in the pregnancy?" He asks, opening it to the front page to see if anything caught his eye. "That's a bit on the small side but since you first got pregnant you've gained 36 pounds. Most people gain between 40 and 50 pounds. So I think that all things considered that 132 pounds is great. Your playing catchup Kankuro. Your putting on weight a bit faster to catch up to healthy but you'll get there. It's important that you gain it in a healthy way, and so far Tsunade says to continue at this rate. Until she says otherwise just keep going where you are." He says kissing his cheek and puts breakfast on the table. "I'm proud of you though. Your so much better." "Thanks Rasa. I was a bit worried. I haven't looked at the number since I hit 100 pounds. You've told you me what it said. Looking at it today wasn't as hard as I thought though." Rasa smiles and sits next to him. "I'm happy to hear that my dear." He says as they start on their breakfast. "Herring? What's the occasion?" Asks Kankuro. "Nothing. I just wanted to do something special." He says and takes a bite of it.

About half way through the meal the maid brings the head of engineering in and he has a flustered look on his face. The lab results were on his desk when he walked into his office this morning. "Lord Kazekage, Lord Kankuro, I have the results you wanted." He says. Rasa turns to the maid. "Thank you for showing him in. Could you please give us a moment?" He asks and she nods and goes to change their sheets and get started on the laundry. Then he turns back to the head of engineers. "Our survey is complete sir. But I think we should start with the explosive residue in the talc vein. The perps did, in fact, use paper bombs. And the residue left behind matches samples from the batch that the missing paper bombs came from." He lets that sink in for a second as Kankuro and Rasa nod. "What percentage of the missing tags would have fit in that vein?" Asks Rasa. "Safely enough for the person setting the tags to get away, about 5 percent of them, and going by how much of an impact, I would say it was filled to that same percent." Kankuro nods. That meant that they were looking for 20 percent of their paper bombs now, and it was also obvious that this wasn't an act of war from another nation. It was an act carried out by somebody in the their country and their village. And that the theft had occurred before the attack. Someone in the storehouses was in on it. "What else did you find?" He asks. "The Ravine is about 100 feet deep and stops 6 feet into sand stone. It seems that after a point in the sand stone the shock got absorbed. We didn't find much as far as poking around what was left of the base but I did find the cpu's of the two computers there and a disk. Those have been sent to intelligence. If there's anything on those I told him to notify you right away. And sir, I think you had better follow through on your plan to move the village as soon as possible. The crack has grown a centimeter every day toward the village. If any geological activity happens, no telling how much further that crack will go. It's a threat to everyone's safety. And we don't know weather it will happen today or in 10 years, but we don't want to be here when it does." He says. "Okay well we have to finalize the last of those plans and start organizing things for the move don't we?" Says Rasa. Kankuro nods.

They would have to move that to the top priority. Kankuro gets up to go get dressed and sees the head of engineering's eyes on his stomach, and Rasa was looking at them both. "The rumors are true. But please don't say a word to anyone. Rasa and I feel it would be best to wait until the 12 week danger zone is past. We're almost there but the stress of the public eye early in the pregnancy would cause undo stress that wouldn't be healthy to the child. With everything that's going on theres enough stress already. It's not to lie to anyone. It's just so the baby is heathy as possible." Kankuro explains. "I understand sir. Congratulations to the both of you." He says, bowing softly. "Thank you." Says Rasa, still sitting and pulls Kankuro to him and puts his cheek on the baby bump happily. He smiles softly. "I'll go see if intelligence has found anything on those computers yet." He says and heads off after bowing to them.

After that the two of them clean up their breakfasts and go to get dressed, Rasa in his Kazekage robes and Kankuro in his baggy black Kimono with short sleeves and a blue sash that was really baggy on the top half above the sash and had cuts on the side going to his hips like a quipo*. He stopped wearing the purple war paint early on in his pregnancy. It only got messed up when he got morning sickness and now that he was working a desk job rather than combat he didn't see the need for it. "How do you wear black in the desert any way?" Rasa asks. Kankuro hands him one of his kimonos. The fabric was very light and very thin. "The breeze goes right through. It's synthetic so it won't rip, even though it's so thin. If it were a lighter color though it would be see through when I sweat." He explains. "Some people like lighter colors but thicker fabric, but the sweat doesn't evaporate as fast. I hate the feeling of wet clothes. Different strokes for different folks." He says. Rasa nods, surprised by how light the material felt. Something made of this would be nice, even if it was black. Kankuro looks around for the pants that went underneath them and his sandals. "I think the maid already took the wash. Just wear the blue ones that match your sash." Says Rasa. Kankuro nods and grabs the pants. "These have always been big on me but I'll give them a try." He says and puts his legs through the holes. "I think I'll be wearing these more often." He says. "I didn't notice how tight the other ones had gotten." He says and grabs his shoes. "Well your at the point where things are goanna start popping out more. Your goanna need to get things that will grow with you now." Says Rasa, throwing on his own shoes as Kankuro throws his on. "Oh yea! Shopping!" Says Kankuro sarcastically. "Well it can wait a week or two. Now let's get to work." Says Rasa, taking Kankuro's hand as they walk to their offices.

They spend the morning in Rasa's office, waiting on intelligence to hack into an password protected file as they come up with and refine the plan to move the village a day and a half away. A safe distance from the ravine and in a location where water would be more abundant. They nearly lose track of time, but a quick glance at the clock told them it was time for lunch. "We'll get back to this later. It's already noon." Says Rasa. "Let's go out to eat today." He suggests. A sentiment that would have been a great idea had he had it a half hour sooner. Everyone had already left for lunch a half hour ago save for Gaara or Temari, who had left this morning on an s rank mission. Everyone either went home or went out to lunch, and since the Kazekage and his family lived in the government building, they were the only ones there during lunch hour. They were just getting ready to leave when a series of booms and rattles shake the building. The floor starts imploding and Kankuro grabs Rasa with a string and his summoning scroll off his desk with another. Rocks start falling around them as Kankuro hurriedly opens the scroll as their pelted with smaller rocks. He puts his hand on the scroll and salamander appears in a puff of smoke as they fall through the air. He pulls them inside as the floors beneath them continue to cave in. His defensive puppet could withstand the impact of thousands of tons of rocks, but weather or not it could survive a fall he had yet to test. The ability to withstand impact from the top was well known, but the bottom hadn't been tested yet. Bottom line was salamander hadn't been designed to replace a parachute in the event of a fall. As he and Rasa were cramped into a small space, falling as their home imploded around them, they had moments before they found out. They wrap their arms around each other as they grow closer and closer to the foundation of the basement, every floor beneath them already crumbled.

Seconds seemed to slow down into minuets as they waited to figure out weather they would live or die. Then finally the loud smack of the puppet hitting cement explodes in their ears and they bounce once, twice, and still intact. The bottom held up. A sigh of relief escapes them both, and they could each feel the air leaving the others lungs but not hear the sound of the wind's egress as the rocks pelted the top of the puppet. Kankuro knew that they would be okay since the bottom held up. The top had withstood more weight when someone had attempted to kidnap Gaara two years ago. He and Rasa had been trapped in salamander and had been able to climb out and get him back before any harm came to Gaara with the combined strength of Rasa's gold dust and his puppets. A minuet later the sound stops. Their both shaken and Kankuro has enough sense to turn on the air flow system. They would have air indefinitely, but unlike last time, Salamander's front legs were crushed and he couldn't dig them out. The joints had been hit in just the right way. But what was perhaps even more problematic was that even if Salamander could dig them out, Kankuro, who had just gotten off crutches from the last time he was buried alive, was now in a state of panic and curls up in a ball toward the tail. "Kankuro, it's okay. We're going to be fine." Says Rasa and wraps his arms around him and dabs his cheeks with his sleeve and Kankuro nods. "I-I-I-I k-k-know. The k-k-kid is just so scared right now and the emotion is o-o-o-o-overwhelming me." He manages to get out through the sobs that shook his body violently. Their baby was terrified and the emotion was much stronger than it had been during the last fall. He didn't know wether the baby remembered it or the child's feelings were more developed than last time, but for whatever reason the sensation was about 10 times stronger than it had been. Understanding falls on Rasa that hormones and his ability to read chakra had caused the emotions of him and the baby to run together due to this high stress experience and it wasn't good for Kankuro, but it was less stress on the baby, so to make things easier for Kankuro, the baby had to be calmed down. His body had the ability to protect their child both physically and emotionally. So with that understanding he makes his chakra as calm as possible and undoes Kankuro's sash, putting his hand on the bump and sending soothing chakra into his womb to comfort the little one as he hums quietly, placing his head next to the bump so the baby could hear the familiar sound of his humming. Even Rasa could feel the terror that their baby felt, but he could also feel it diminishing as he soothed it. After a few minuets Kankuro had calmed down enough to help him soothe their child into calm, though he had a feeling that this child was going to be born with a fear of heights. Frankly, Kankuro didn't really care for them much after these last few weeks either.

After the little one calmed down he removed his hand. All emotion was gone but calm and he was pretty sure it was sleeping now. Kankuro was relaxed and takes his Kimono off all the way, hot because of his hormones. "Looking good Kanny." Rasa whispers in his ear as Kankuro blushes, opening his mouth to say something but he wasn't sure what.

Rasa covers his mouth with his own lips and kisses him briefly, whispering in Kankuro's ear that they had time to kill. A notion that caused Kankuro's face to turn even redder. Doing it inside of a tool that he used so regularly would make it hard to think of salamander the same way again. But at present, something else was a bit hard too, and Rasa had noticed that and smirks, palming it through his pants. Kankuro wasn't the longest but he had a lot of girth, and he mewls softly at the friction Rasa gives him. "I think I know how we're going to spend all this spare time we have." He says, whisking his pants and boxers off of the smaller male, leaving him naked so he could see everything, and he gazes at his cute little husband, all hard and blushing. A sight that always made him smirk. He takes his own cock out and sets Kankuro on his lap, placing his dick between his thighs and his hands over his nipples, rubbing the small nubs of flesh as he thrusts between those tight thighs and against Kankuro's balls and cock. Rasa was a very well endowed man and the tip of his member rubbed against Kankuro's thighs and against his balls in the right ways.

He smirks, hearing the small noises coming from his lovers mouth that meant he was making him feel good and places soft kisses on his neck, his hands drifting downward and running over Kankuro's chest, stomach and finally grabbing hold of his member and cupping his balls with the other hand, pumping and squeezing to elicit the soft moans that were music to his ears. He keeps thrusting between his thighs and stroking him, licking a spot on his neck where he carried a lot of pressure. It made the spot more sensitive and tears a particularly loud moan from him at the stimulation. Rasa presses his tongue into the spot again and jerks Kankuro's cock some more, all the while thrusting between those thighs, both of them growing closer. A particularly hard thrust and a sensual jerk later both were cumming. Rasa on Kankuro's thighs and Kankuro on his own stomach. He holds Kankuro tightly against his chest as they catch their breath and when he turned around to get his clothes on Rasa could only wish he had a camera.

After getting him cleaned off and he gets dresseKd Kankuro yawns and lies down. Rasa puts his dick away and puts Kankuro's head on his lap. That way he would have a sort of pillow as they waited. Baki was goanna throw a fit over this. He just knew it. After waiting several more hours he starts hearing sounds and they wake Kankuro, who sits up and grabs hold of Rasa's hand. The sound of rocks moving grew louder and louder until they could feel the puppet somehow being lifted from the rubble and placed on solid ground. Kankuro opens the top to find Gaara, Temari and Baki outside and when they see that both of them are safe they breathe a sigh of relief. Gaara and Temari hug them as soon as they step out of the puppet and some color returns to Baki's face.

"Lord Kazekage, Lord Kankuro, I'm glad your all right." He says bowing. He had a slip of paper in his hand. "I was on my way to deliver this when the building exploded." He says, handing the slip to Rasa. It was the file intelligence had to hack. It was plans for a coup de ta. Today's attack had been planed and Rasa was the target. There were plans to bomb key economic and military hubs were today's plans to fail and a highly populated civilian neighborhood. "I already had the areas evacuated and searched for paper bombs. Their all clear. And if it's a coup, I doubt that the person responsible is a suicide bomber. Should the civilians be allowed to return as long as the areas are under strict surveillance?" He asks. Rasa shakes his head. "Why take that kind of risk? Keep the surveillance but relocate the affected civilians to safety." He says. Then he turns to the street where a crowd of citizens had gathered. "How much do they know?" He asks, looking at Baki. "Only that the Kage mansion was attached." He says. "Well it's not going to be possible to keep them in the dark after this is it? May as well give them the gist of what's going on." With that he turns to the people.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I understand that your scared. But Kankuro and I are both fine and we know that this is an internal attack. We still don't know which group or individual is responsible for this but we've discovered their plans on a computer. Our intelligence is analyzing the data we have gained to try and discover who is responsible. The problem is being dealt with swiftly as possible because civilian safety is a top priority. That's why you might have noticed increased security these past two weeks. After this security is going to be further tightened. None of you will be harmed under my watch. I promise." Says Rasa. The crowd, while still shaken, takes comfort in his words. Their Kazekage was all right and they were closing in on the party responsible. Soon the nightmare would be over.

*A quipo (pronounced chi-po) is a Chinese garment for women with slits up the side. The idea for the outfit Kankuro is wearing is the fact that the overhang would help hide a bump and if it were modified into a masculine style it would help hide the bump too. Plus it would also look bad ass.

Well that was a long chapter. As usual please read and review. Flames will be used to create more anarchy. Constructive criticism is always welcome though.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Facing the Future

Again, special thanks to dwellerofcrag. Your review made me feel awesome. And to Ari. Your meme worthy lines keep me inspired.

Five days passed. Kankuro had officially made it out of the danger zone. Odds were the baby would make it. Both Kankuro and Rasa breathe a sigh of relief. The pair was being visited by a certain 5th Hokage for Kankuro and the baby's 12 week appointment to check their progress. "Well your looking great Kankuro." She says as he steps onto the scale. He had made it to 134 pounds. "Most people don't gain much in their first trimester but you got yourself to a healthy weight. This will make the rest of your pregnancy much easier." She says. "Your showing a bit more than I would have expected but everyone carries differently." She adds as she measures his bump vertically. "And I guess I could see that happening given your starting weight." She muses, measuring his waist and comparing it to the measurement taken for his wedding attire. "I would say this growth rate is impressive, but given that you've also been putting on weight to become healthier it's hard to say how much of that is baby weight. Still though it looks like your BMI is finally in the normal range. Low normal, but still normal." Kankuro smiles at that. He was finally healthy. He had done it for Rasa. He had done it for the baby. And most importantly he had done it for himself.

It was in that nostalgic moment that the child decided to communicate through the chakra which causes Kankuro to raise an eyebrow. "What is it?" Asks Rasa with concern. "The baby is trying to communicate through its chakra." He says. "Well what's it saying!?" Rasa asks with excitement. "It's mostly... Disgruntled embryo noises..." Says Kankuro. This causes Rasa to snort a bit. "Well what's got your umbilical cord in a knot baby?" Asks Rasa, rubbing his belly. "I don't know. It still doesn't have clear language. And I don't know if it ever will before it starts speaking." He says. Tsunade nods. "That's probably a reasonable assumption." She says and turns on a machine. "Kankuro take your shirt off for me please." She says and grabs a bottle of gel. Kankuro takes his long kimono like top off and hands it to Rasa and lies down on the exam table. They finally got to see the baby and he was hella excited to see the tiny human he and Rasa made.

Tsunade squirts some of the gel on his belly and puts the wand on his bump. "Well we have a little face!" She says and points to the screen. "Thank goodness. It has Rasa's nose." Says Kakuro, poking his own. It was a bit on the wide side. "This wouldn't suit a new born." He says and chuckles a little. "Yes and it has those cute cheeks of yours!" Says Rasa and pokes his cheek. That makes Kankuro blush. Tsunade takes a picture and has the machine print it out and zooms out a bit to look at the baby. "Well everything looks healthy." She says as she examines the baby and takes a few more pictures before removing the probe. "Your both doing great. Let's set another ultrasound appointment for 10 weeks. Your in the clear now so announce it when you see fit." She says and packs up her things. "Take care."

A few minuets later she was on her way home and Rasa looks at Kankuro. "Well let's check our desks real quick and see if there are any new developments before we tell the people. If we have any more updates that would comfort them. We should also tell them about the move." He says as they walk to their temporary offices hand in hand. "Geological activity has increased so the sooner we move the better. I was hoping you would have given birth before we moved so it wouldn't have been so stressful to you. But that obviously won't happen." He says and kisses his bump as they get to the office. "It's not too bad. We have a plan laid out and the foundations are being dug. So everything is goanna be just fine." He says. Rasa nods and walks to his desk. "Well we have suspects finally." He says sitting on his desk. Kankuro sits next to him and they start reading the file. "It's a political group that has some pretty extreme views. Their very theocratic and follow the Jashinest religion.* Their main goal is to break apart from the sand and form their own nation. The leader has stated that they should slaughter those who don't convert. They sacrifice their own blood every day. It's pretty dark stuff. Their not happy that we've allied ourselves with Kohona or with the peace. The way their beliefs operate would call for them to take action." Rasa sighs at this and Kankuro runs his hands through his hair before speaking. "This situation just became a hell of a lot more complicated. The Jashinests who follow the teaching that they have no right to inflict pain that they haven't themselves experienced may view this as an attack on their faith if we label this group religious extremist. And religious freedom is something that's always been important. The leaf has their clans. We have our tribes. There are a lot of different beliefs in this village because of the different tribes of desert dwelling shinobi that came together to found this nation and that's why it's important that we don't run as a theocracy. That way no discriminatory laws are made. This is an extremist group, but can't vilify Jashinism, even if it is one of the darker religions here. We need to focus on how the theocratic ambitions would be detrimental to everyone. Hell it looks like a group like this wouldn't take kindly to Jashinests who refused to slaughter since they had no right to slaughter someone based on the fact they've never been slaughtered before and haven't experienced that pain. And I wasn't aware that there were still any Jashinests around. I thought that the tribe who practiced it had their own village near the north east border of the wind and that they were wiped out a while back." Says Kankuro. "They were. It was apparently an attack by the stone during the war. The ones here are converts." Says Rasa. "We had issues with civil unrest in that tribe in the past so we decided not to make an incident out of it. It was a hard loss because they were highly skilled puppeteers and specialized in wilding puppets of unbelievable size, but it also brought stability back to the wind and the unrest died down enough for us to reach an international peace. Perhaps even this group is bitter about that or feels as though it wouldn't have happened if a Jashinest was ruling. But that really doesn't matter at this point. It's the safety of this nation that's the priority."

"Agreed. It's just how to handle this delicately when the time to inform the public of who's responsible for the attacks. I don't think we should specify which religion the extremists belong to in order to protect the practicers of the religion who are innocent and to prevent those practicers from thinking this is an attack on their religion. Then again that could create mistrust between the different religions here. You would think that by now people would understand that people like these use religion to justify their actions rather than making their actions align with the teachings of their faith." He says with a sigh. Rasa nods. "Wording this is going to be tricky. Any way I'm going to motion for a warrant to serve to the properties of the key leaders of the group to see if we can find any evidence. They do have ties to the military. That makes it reasonable to assume that they had a way of gaining access to those weapons." He says, pausing to think of how he was going to word this. "Maybe I should say that the group behind the attacks is a separatist group who uses the doctrine of Jashin to justify their actions. Then tell them to be mindful that not all practicers are extremists and the law of Jashin states that one cannot inflict suffering that they haven't experienced on another and most practicers follow this law so this group is hiding political ideology behind misused doctrine. After that state that the diversity we have here is what makes us great. Every tribe and every clan brings valuable talents to this village and its that which allows us to prosper. The climate we live in is one where we all have our place helping each other despite our differences. Those differences create different strengths in different people. It's only because of that that our people are able to thrive in such an environment. Last I should urge them to to remain calm and united as we take care of the problem rather than creating more anarchy because that's what the separatists aim to institute in us." Rasa muses. Kankuro puts his hand on his shoulder. "That sounds like a plan Rasa. If they don't listen theres little more we can do. They seem to be trying to move us toward a civil war. I hope to god it doesn't come to that but if it does we need to be prepared for anything. We've managed to have a long standing peace only because religion hasn't been a political focal point up till now. The same tribal diversity that made us great is what will lead to tension when it does become a focal point. We can speak all we want but that only does us good on ears that are open to listen." He says, rubbing his shoulder comfortingly. Rasa hugs him at this, deciding to confide his deepest worries into his husband in a moment of vulnerability that was a bit uncharacteristic of him. Usually he tried to be the rock and the head of the house. Kankuro had never thought that to be healthy but knew that some day he would open up. It seemed that day was today. "Kankuro, I worry that this is my fault. Maybe some decision I made is what caused this. If that's the case the blood of so many innocent citizens will be lost because of me. I've been second guessing myself so much since this whole mess started. And I feel so weak. I can fight on a battlefield with more proficiency than any other shinobi in the country. That's what made me the Kazekage instead of my older brothers. But what good is it if I can't keep our people united? What good is being able to protect a country with my abilities when it's falling apart? I've given orders that have taken the lives of shinobi during times of war, and even my own people have been ordered to their deaths. But how do I give those orders against my own people? And this isn't the political climate I was hoping to bring out child into." He says and puts his head on Kankuro's shoulder, a tear falling from his eye.

Kankuro wraps his arms around the larger man and kisses his head. "Rasa, growing up I've seen things headed for change and it's only because of you that things have remained stable this long. And I don't think it's going to be tribe against tribe and neighbor against neighbor. I think this is going to be a battle of the people fighting for the new freedoms you've given us against the old oppressive ways that had countless people living in fear. People cleave to what they know. And when you took power from your father, you had a lot to fix." Rasa stiffens at the mention of his father. It was a bit of a taboo subject, but Kankuro hugs him tighter because what he was saying was what needed to be said at this moment. "You've given countless people opportunities they never would have had if you continued the legacy of him and your grandfather. But there are still people who value the same things they did and raise their children to believe the same. That's why there's still so much hate in this country still and it's also why there's so much hate in this world. Maybe this is how that hate will finally be quelled. It will be tragic if that's what it comes to. But I've seen new life each passing year in this village and I have faith that things will continue to change for the better. This is a wall we have to climb over. But sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better." He says, kissing the top of his head as they just hold each other close. Rasa calms down after 10 minuets and his confidence returns as he kisses Kankuro on the cheek. "Thanks babe. That's exactly what I needed to hear." He says and stands up, putting his hand on Kankuro's cheek, making the smaller of the two blush before he runs his hand down his cheek and slipping it under his chin, tilting Kankuro's face up to his and looking into his eyes, his other hand resting on the small swell on Kankuro's mid drift. "For now let's tell the people about our child and the move." He says. "And let's change into something that doesn't look like it was made for..." Rasa couldn't find the words to really describe it. "Lounging?" Asks Kankuro. "Yes. That's the appropriate word." He says and picks him up and hugs him close. "Love you too Rasa." He says with a blush, his cheek pressed against his husband's.

After a walk back to the new home they were staying in while their home was being rebuilt, their in the closet trying to find something decent to wear. Rasa dons his Kazekage robes and Kankuro was still looking for something that fit him. Rasa had noticed last week that he was down to a few outfits and all of those were either athletic, battle dress, casual or sleep wear. He needed maternity clothes, but hated shopping so Rasa just smiles a little. "Maybe there's something in the top drawer of my dresser that would fit you." He says with a smirk. It had been one of the items that they had been able to recover. "Rasa, that drawer has been full of miss matched socks that come out of the laundry ever since I can remember." Says Kankuro. "It wasn't last time I checked." He says. Kankuro raises an eye brow and walks over to the drawer and pulls it open. Sure enough instead of socks it had been filled with a new set of clothing for him. Kankuro wasn't sure what to say at the spoiling. "Go ahead and see what I got you." He says. Kankuro smiles and takes the first article out. They had obviously come from a new store. Kankuro hadn't been the first man in the village to conceive and with all the new marriages and freedoms many couples had decided to start family's of their own. With that came new demands for male maternity wear. "Well thank goodness it's not drag." Says Kankuro, looking at the purple sleeveless tunic with a black sash that tied under the chest above the bump. It wrapped around so that it could expand with the waist and tied where there wouldn't be weight gain. On the back was the yellow and red circular crest of the puppet corps and had black trim on it. Accompany it was a pair of black pants that were designed to expand with a baby bump. "It was tempting." Says Rasa. A second outfit was beside it. It was more of a formal white tunic that was gathered over the bump and reached his feet with a jacket that reached his calves in the same color as Rasa's Kazekage robes. Next to that was a black hakama with a purple baggy tank top for lounging in and a black jacket to go over it so that he could wear it while working. A pair of purple pants was there to go under the hakama if he wanted purple instead of black. As he goes through the drawer he sees that there's an outfit for anything. He folds the clothes back up and hugs Rasa close. "Thank you so much." He says and hugs him. Rasa wraps his arms around him and kisses the top of his head. "It's no trouble love." He says. "Now let's get ready." Rasa says as he puts his hat on and Kankuro puts on the white tunic with the greenish blue jacket and looks in the mirror. The bump was visible in this but the clothing was more comfortable because it was designed to fit a pregnant person. And it was actually very flattering on him. It also had a very official look to it because it matched Rasa's Kage robes. "Well where are we going to talk to the people?" Asks Kankuro. Usually they spoke from the Kazekage mansion, but that was out of the question because it was in ruins from the bombing. "The town square right outside is where their gathered. We'll be at the second floor balcony where they can see us talk but with enough distance to protect ourselves incase this isn't received well. That way I can protect you and the baby." He says and rubs the bump. "Okay. What time did you say to gather?" He asks. Rasa looks at the clock. "We have a minuet. May as well get out there." He says and Kankuro shakes his head nervously. "It will be okay." He says and takes his hand. Kankuro nods and takes a deep breath as Gaara Temari, Baki, come in. "I have anbu stationed in the crowd looking for anyone suspicious and ready to respond to aggressive action in addition to the ones guarding the house. The three of us will be right behind you." Says Baki and opens the door for them and checks the balcony for paper bombs and traps. "All clear. Come on out." He says. Rasa takes Kankuro's hand and they step onto the balcony and Gaara and Temari stand behind him.

The people were gathered and chatting, wondering what Rasa had to say. Rasa raises his hands to silence them. When a hush falls over the crowd he clears his throat. He would start with the baby since that was a bit easier to digest. "People of the sand, I have two announcements to make. I'm going to start by addressing the talk around the village regarding the suspected growth of my family. Rumors of my husband having convinced have been whispered for the past few weeks incase you haven't yet heard. Today we're confirming that Kankuro is in fact, with child. We were advised to wait until the 12th week as many couples have been, to announce. Kankuro is 12 weeks pregnant today. Both he and the baby have been given a clean bill of health." He says. There's an obvious mixed reaction from the crowd. Some were cheering. The older folks were whispering and a few had looks of horror as Rasa put his hand on Kankuro's stomach. A few shocked old people was a better reaction than he had expected. Now that it was announced Kankuro could finally relax a bit and puts his hand on top of Rasa's.

"The next announcement is something that will be a bit more difficult to digest. As I'm sure your all aware there is a ravine that recently opened up a mile outside the village in a calculated terror attack. New information about this ravine has been delivered to me about it. It's expanding rapidly. On a slow day a centimeter a day. Yesterday after a small quake that I'm sure nobody even felt it expanded a full foot. This places the village in immediate danger." He says and the villagers start to chatter in fear. Rasa raises his hands to silence them again. "I understand your afraid. But a plan is in place. There's no easy way of saying this so I'll just come right out and say it. The entire village is going to be picked up and moved. A detailed plan is in place to relocate it to a more geologically stable area that has more water than our current location. Detailed instructions are being sent to every house hold. I know it's a pretty shocking notion to pick up a village this size and move it, but I will not let your homes sink into the earth. I took a vow to protect this village, this nation, and it's people. It's a vow I intend to keep." He says. There was mixed reaction to this as well. The minuet someone threw a Kuni at Kankuro it was decided that it was mainly resistance. Baki pushed Kankuro into Rasa and slashed the Kuni in two with his wind blade. The women who threw it was placed under arrest and the Kazekage and his family go inside as Baki gets the crowd under control.

A week later the ground shook violently. The ravine opened up another 100 feet.

*a theocracy is a government that bases its laws on religion.

Sorry for taking so long to update. Thank you for being patient with me. I've had some stuff come up in my personal life with my health and there have been issues with a dear friend. I'll do my best to keep updating when I get a chance. It may be more like every 10 to 15 days instead of 5 to 7. I'm not sure how long this will last. I thank you in advance for your understanding.

As usual please read and review. Constructive criticism is welcome because it will help me improve. You know I just realized something ridiculous and how fucking stupid I am. I jeep saying to read and review. But you already read it so I should just be saying review. Any way flames will be used to burn this hell of a world to something crispy and un editable as England from hetalia' scones. Don't judge me because I'm just in that kind of pissed off mood. And here's to any flames in advanced: _|_


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Blowing the Lid

Special thanks to Dwellerofcrag for reviewing again. I'm sorry to hear about your friend. I don't really want to advertise what's going on in my life in detail in my announcements but if you ever need someone to talk to about your friend on PM I'm here for you. All I can really say here that I understand.

A week after the earthquake the village had accepted that it was either move the village or the entirety of their home would sink into the ground. After such a large expansion they were well aware of how unpredictable the growing ravine had become and just how dangerous it was. The now 14 week pregnant Kankuro was relieved that everyone was coming together to make this move a reality. The people were following the instructions they were given with regard to rationing and preparing food that didn't require refrigeration that had a long shelf life. There had to be enough to feed everyone in the village. Water was being rationed so that they would have enough to last a whole village a three day journey. The projected travel time frame was a day and a half, but it was better to be over prepared than to be foolish and hope that there were no delays.

Before the packing could begin, however, a few warrants appear on Kankuro's desk. It was the early morning, about 3:00 to be exact, that the early rising child had woken Kankuro and not allowed him to continue resting. The sleeplessness prompted Kankuro to begin work early and the sight on his desk makes his heart skip a beat. It had taken this thing long enough to arrive! It must have been placed on his desk some time after he left the previous day. He hastily goes to the room where Baki slept to rise him. His Sensai had been living with the family since he began training Temari. He had just been "adopted" days before she started training at two years old and Kankuro had been a baby. He had lived with the family and served them practically as long as he had been alive. He had been allowed to take up his own residence after the bombing, but had decided to stay with the family to protect them. He had stated that they were in need of security now more than any other time. That's why he was still living with them. As he shuffled into the room he puts a hand on his shoulder and attaches puppet strings to him for safety. Baki could be a bit unpredictable when woken.

"Baki. Wake up." He whispers, causing his sensai to sit up and reach for a kuni, making Kankuro glad he attached the strings. "Chill man. It's just me." He says and detached the strings. Baki rubs his eye and gives his clock a glance and then a glare to Kankuro. "What do you want at this hour?" He asks. "The warrants came. We should serve them as soon as possible. Put together your teams and head out right away." He says, which causes Baki to jump out of bed. "At this hour they won't have a chance to cover their tracks." Says Baki, throwing on his flack jacket and applying his paint. "Those were my thoughts exactly." Says Kankuro as he rubs his stomach. "That's because I trained you so well." Says his Sensai with a grin and starts stocking his pockets with weapons and hand cuffs. Kankuro hands him the warrants and pats his shoulder. "Go get the bastards." He says. "I plan on it." Says Baki and goes to gather his team.

Minuets later everyone on the teams was gathered in a meeting room Kankuro had prepared while the teams were being gathered. "Everyone, you've been called here for an S rank sting. We've closed in on the group behind the recent attacks and we have a warrant for 3 locations. My thoughts are we'll hit the properties at the same time." Kankuro begins, marking all the properties with tacks on a map. "There's a storage locker right here. We suspect that there may be evidence in here. Anything from plans to weapons. We don't know weather anyone is inside right now or not. Use extreme caution. There could be boobie traps. This is the potentially the most dangerous location. I suspect that this is where the missing weapons may be hidden. They may not be in the main locker. Check the floor and walls for hidden doors. This is an extremely dangerous group we're dealing with and I don't want any casualties. This second location is a puppet workshop. This is where the leader of the theocratic party works. There may be evidence of his plans here and these could be terror related or how he plans to run the country after his planned coup. I suspect that there may be ties to the destruction of a village that was raided and burnt to the ground almost 18 years ago somewhere in his invoices. I want any paper evidence taken to the department of intelligence when this is over to look for anything relevant." He orders before pointing at the third tack. "This last location is the residence of the leader of the party. I'm sure the members of the puppet corps are familiar with the legendary work of our master craftsman, Akasauna no Sasori. It's been 20 years since his face has been seen. Instead he elected to hide within a puppet, retire as a ninja, and craft puppets for our puppet corps. Our intelligence has dug up a surprising amount of documents of correspondence between him and several S ranked international criminals, all of whom are mass murders and one of whom is associated with the religion he intends to govern with. It's believed that he started practicing this religion after a period of contact. Place Sasori under arrest. Use extreme caution upon your approach. He hasn't been on a mission in 20 years but we don't know weather he honed his skills at all in this time. As I said. No casualties." He takes a marker and starts drawing a route. "I want back roads to be taken. Don't be seen. Someone will direct movements to make sure every team gets there at the same time. Surround the properties and apprehend anyone who tries to flee after each entry team is in. Once anyone involved has been taken in for questioning process the scenes. I don't want any escapees. Do I make myself clear?" He asks. Every shinobi there responds with a "Yes Sir." Kankuro nods. "Gear up. You have 10 minuets." He says. Everyone goes to the locker room, Kankuro included. "Might I ask what your doing Kankuro?" Baki demands as Kankuro changed into a chain mail armor with the purple sleeveless tunic with the puppeteer corps crest and black pants Rasa had gifted him.

Kankuro turns to Baki and says, "I'm goanna be watching from above Baki. Someone needs to make sure our movements are synchronized and I need you on the ground to help with the storage locker. You have the most experience removing traps. I'll be on the radio with you, Temari, and Gaara since your team leaders." He says and applies his war paint and puts on his hat. "But Kankuro isn't there someone else_." Baki starts and Kankuro holds up a hand. "Everyone with clearance is on those teams Baki. And Rasa getting involved would make word spread like wild fire. He walks to the market and people know where he's at in 2 minuets." He says. "If someone sees him on the radio this whole thing could go south." He says, then pulls out 4 two way radios and puts one on and hands the other three to Baki. Then he grabs a black sash with 4 scrolls tied to it and puts it on his back. "I know you keep Crow on top, Black Ant second down, and Salamander third one down, but that 4th scroll is new." Baki observes. "Indeed it is. It's something I've been working on for 3 years." He replies with a wide and slightly sadistic smile. A crooked grin spreads across Baki's face. "What have you got in there?" He asks. "Let's hope you don't have to find out." He says and goes off to a shielded position on the roof top of a building that had a clear view of the routes. Baki gives the head sets to Gaara and Temari and it was time to go. Baki was headed for the storage locker, Gaara to the home, and Temari to the work shop.

"Okay. Mission is a go. Repeat mission is a go. Head out." He says, watching everyone's movements. "Slow down a bit Temari. Your team is getting ahead." Says Kankuro. After a minuet everyone catches up. "Gaara you just missed your turn. Take a left in 200 feet. Then at the next intersection take a right. Use caution though since you'll be on a main road for 500 feet. Everybody speed up so Gaara's team can get out of the open as soon as possible." They make it without being spotted. "All right. Everyone stop. Baki get your team covered. There's a couple civilians headed your way. It looks like a mother carrying her child to the hospital." Kankuro interjects and they all find cover. Sure enough that's the direction they were headed. Poor kid had to be pretty sick for the mother to be taking her child there at this hour. "Okay. All clear. Resume your advancement." Kankuro keeps directing everyone for another half hour to move 5 blocks. The movement was slow, but calculated. "All right. Your all within a block of your locations. Everyone on full alert." He says and they close in on their locations and surround them in perfect sync. Gaara, Temari and Baki position themselves at the door with the warrants.

They knock on the door, warrants in hand. "You have 30 seconds to open the door. I have a warrant to search the premises." Each one says, following standard search procedure. None of the doors open. Baki stands back and busts it open with his wind blade and 5 shinobi came out to greet him. He let them run straight into his team where they were quickly apprehended. Temari opens her door with the fan to find nobody inside. Gaara knocks his door off with sand and the tail of a giant scorpion tail rushes at him. The sand blocks it and crushes the joints. "Careful Gaara." He whispers, maintaining radio silence so he doesn't distract the red head. The puppet Sasori hid himself in appears as several high level joinin make it past Gaara's team and head for the border as Gaara crushes the puppet with his sand coffin technique. Inside he found another puppet with the appearance of the legendary craftsman 20 years prior, but a curious hole in the chest cavity. "Kankuro. They got past my barrier. Should I send my team after them?" He asks. "Send a unit to tail them but do not engage. It looked like several high level joinin were in that group, including Pakura of the Blaze. I don't want a fight breaking out within the village in a residential neighborhood. Make sure they leave and then have them return. We can list them as missing nin but at least we'll know who we're looking for. Go in and process the scene." He says. "All right. I don't like it but a fight would be too messy. It will be easier to detect them coming at us from the outside than to detect their movement from within." He replied. "Exactly. Everyone you know your job. Collect every scrap of evidence on those properties." He says.

They all go in and begins the arduous task of processing evidence and within minuets there's a buzz on his radio. "Kankuro my team found the weapons. We didn't find anyone in the store houses in association. But there are so many paper bombs this had to be an inside job." He says. "All right. I doubt prints will get us anywhere. They'll likely match craftsmen, the shinobi we've apprehended, and store house employees. Still dust though and see if we can find anything outside the norm. How are things looking on your end Temari? "Very disturbing. This workshop is filled with puppets that look life like. And there's a recently exhumed corpse in here being turned into a puppet. This is going to take several days to process, but it appears that several of these puppets have been made with the corpses of the dead." She says. "All right. See if any of them can be identified with any missing or deceased persons and notify family or return them to their resting place after documentation." Kankuro orders. "What about you Gaara?"

"There are several strange things about this house. There's no food and no refrigerator, the furniture is very basic and the bed looks like its un slept in. It's pristine as though it's unlived in. There are plans all over the place though. Their neatly organized into files. After photo documentation I'll send them to intelligence." He said. "All right. Get it done and seal the scene and position your guards. Then get to your reports and file those shinobi as missing nin." He says. Gaara was about to respond when his voice suddenly became frantic. "Kankuro on your six!" He had spotted someone else on the roof top. The Burnett grabs his third scroll and pulls out Salamander as he ducks to the side as he doges a sword being swung at him from behind. "Holy shit. Thanks Gaara." He says and turns to look at his assailant. It appears to be nothing more than a puppet. He pulls out Black Ant and Crow as well. "Sasori, where are you hiding?" He asks. The puppet comes at him again and he manages to snag the tattered cloak the puppet wore from the body only to be left in shock.

The body of the puppet was once again identical to the Sasori of twenty years ago. But it was clearly that of a puppet. Lodged in the puppet's chest was a container that beat in time with a heart. A steady thu-thump rhythm like that of a living person's heart. The lid of this container had the character for "Sasori" written on it in red, and he could detect chakra coming from within it. This was, without a doubt, a living puppet. The human flesh Akasauna no Sasori had previously occupied had been forgotten, the organ providing him with life grotesquely transplanted into a body that didn't age, required no food, and no rest. Twenty years ago Sasori had started hiding underneath his puppet. It was safe to say that it was probably the same time he started hacking off his own limbs in favor of the unnatural. Traded his flesh for eternity and his body to become a tool.

He knew right away that the puppets he had been using to this point would be worthless against their creator and trying to fight him with them would be like humans fighting against the very God which had created them. Ridiculous and fool hardy. He had no choice but to use the puppet of his own creation. He wasn't going to test the waters in this fight. Not with his life and the life of his unborn child on the line. The steaks were far too high. As much as he didn't want a fight in the village he had no other choice. He was in a business district where there were no civilians. At this hour they would all be at home, and the fact he didn't sense any chakra near by confirmed it. Right now he had no choice. Fight or die.

He pulls the fourth scroll from his sash, placing his hand on the sealing formula and releasing a massive puppet the height of 4 men. It was as wide as three and had 8 arms and 2 heads: one of a human and one of a horse. Each head had 6 eyes and the eyes were roughly the size of his head. Each head had a shock of black hair and had grotesquely crooked teeth carved into the mouth. Each head had the horns of a ram. The belly of the puppet opened to a bladed iron maiden chamber, staying true to the disposal technique he preferred. Each limb was as thick as a tree. The hands attached to each of the 8 arms had a human shape, but the feet of his creation were the feet of a goat, it had the tail of a horse and the scaled pattern of a dragon. Hanging from one of its mouths was the forked tongue of a serpent. On its back were the leathery wings of a bat. As the puppet appears a thundering sound rumbles as the legs of the monstrous looking creation's feet hit the rooftop. It was loud enough to wake anyone sleeping near by, Rasa included. He hadn't seen a puppet as massive as this one in 18 years. As he looks out the window his jaw drops. It looked like the Leeds devil* had a child with Kankuro's signature move and that child had never stopped growing until it became something terrifying. Could it be that... no it couldn't be... They were all wiped out... And yet to control a puppet so massive!

Sasori raises an eyebrow. "That's certainly an interesting puppet you have. I'm afraid something so massive will not work in combat though. Such a puppet would be too slow." He says as a coil from his stomach shoots toward Kankuro. With a flick of his wrist and a curl of his finger a one arm splits apart, between the two halves was a massive shield. He pulls his other arm to the left and makes a fist. The opposing arm bursts open and hundreds of smaller, more agile arms burst forth. "I'm no idiot Sasori. This puppet wasn't designed to make me look better. It's designed for combat." With that he gets the puppet ready to strike or defend. "Well then in that case, I guess I'll have to match your tool with my own best." He says and pulls out a scroll with a summoning on it. The name in the formula was simply a number. Three. Nobody watching was prepared for what happened when the puppet that had formerly been a shinobi placed his hand on the formula. He pulled out the preserved body that had been turned into a puppet of Rasa's father and predecessor. The third Kazekage. The shinobi who used iron sand. "You see, I have a unique ability when it comes to crafting puppets Kankuro. I can take the body of a deceased shinobi and preserve it and modify it into a weapon while preserving the ability the tool had during its life. This makes them superior to what they were when they were living. I don't normally show mercy, and I normally kill those who would stand in my way, but seeing your current condition I don't actually want to kill you. It's not that I don't hate you and your family. There's a reason I don't wish to fight you." He says and just forms the third Kazekage's iron sand into a magnet. "Why is that?" Kankuro demands, shooting senbon at the former human, hoping to hit the container on his chest. "That isn't for you to know." He answers, blocking with the iron sand. "You ass hole! I got a right to know jaan!" He yells and grabs the puppet body with the hands, crushing the limbs and torso with crushing strength. It seemed that he had finally taken care of Sasori. And yet when he releases the remnants of the puppet, the vessel containing his heart was gone. Kankuro was irate, hormonal, and starts to rage cry.

It was at this point Rasa had made it to the scene. "Kankuro, what happened?" Asks Rasa, holding him to try and comfort him. He shrugs Rasa off and goes to seal his puppet, still shaking with wrath. It was as he was documenting the remains of the Sasori puppet that Gaara, Baki, and Temari made it back, and Temari runs to hug him but Rasa shakes his head at her. "Let him calm down princess. For now just tell me what happened."

"My lord, at 3:00 this morning Kankuro woke me with the warrants. Kankuro set a very good plan for a sting. I chose Gaara and Temari to be the leaders of the other two teams. We didn't want your involvement because had you been spotted the stealth would have been blown off the operation. We found out who was involved since they appeared to be having a meeting, but unfortunately apprehending them would have been impossible without a large scale battle. Kankuro deemed it to be too risky in a heavily populated civilian neighborhood. Pakura of the blaze and several high ranking joining were involved so that was the right call without a doubt. I don't know how Sasori got to Kankuro though my lord." He says as Kankuro starts tinkering with the puppet parts a bit. "I can explain that." Says Gaara. "When I crushed the puppet Sasori hides himself in the body I found inside was that of a second puppet. It had a curious hole in the chest that had small veins running throughout the puppet. It appeared to be a fabricated chakra network. The hole in the chest must have been where the chakra of what had been a human at one point was stored. He must have had another body to transfer the vessel to before I crushed him. That's when he went to attack Kankuro and the next thing I know that huge puppet appears and it looked like Kankuro got Sasori. The vessel must have been gone though." Says the red head, looking at the gigantic puppet. "Yeah. It's gone. I think he gets the chakra from his heart. It had the rhythm of a heart beat." Says Kankuro.

"So let me get this straight. You have all the evidence you need to get a conviction but the criminals got away?" He asks. "Yes sir. I'm sorry." Says Kankuro. "Father." Gaara interjects, "It was me being unprepared for the unexpected that lead to their escape. Kakuro's plan would have worked had I been prepared. It's my fault." He says. "Was anyone captured at all?" Rasa asks. "Yes sir. There are 5 prisoners being booked as we speak." Says Baki. Rasa takes a deep breath. "All right. Despite the failure we still gained a lot from this mission. We have evidence, prisoners, the identities of the key players, we know what Sasori is now, and the threat has been driven from the village. It's easier to spot an approaching threat than to chase down a threat from within. Thank you for your hard work everyone. Kankuro, calm down. You all did great given the unforeseen circumstances." He says and hugs Kankuro from behind. Kankuro calms down a bit.

"Have someone take that thing to my work shop. I want to figure out how he did that and how to use that puppet. It has some interesting weapons I haven't seen in a puppet before. It appears that that thing even has flame throwers." He says. Rasa shudders a bit. "And speaking of new puppets Kankuro, where did you find a puppet like that one?" Asks Rasa. "I made it myself." He explained. "You did what?" A look of awe clearly readable on his face. "I made it. I wanted a puppet that has the defensive capabilities of Salamander, the trapping abilities of Black Ant, can be offensive like Crow, and still maintains my iron maiden disposal method. Combining all these things made the puppet huge so I had to install hidden parts that are more agile in combat because something this big would be slow until it really got moving. It ended up being more complex than I had originally planned." He says. Rasa, Temari and Gaara look impressed. Baki somehow did not seem surprised.

"Well you should probably address the people in the morning." Says Gaara as Kankuro seals his puppet. "Yeah. I probably should." Says Rasa as they head home to prepare for the address.

*the Leeds devil is another name for the jersey devil.

All right. Another one bites the dust. Next chapter is the projected half way point and I have a general idea of what's goanna happen in each chapter. Some of them are more planned than others but I know exactly what I wanna do. It's just filling in details at this point. As usual please review. Flames will be used to fuel the flame thrower hands on the Sasori puppet. To my loyal readers thank you so much for your readership. Next chapter may be up anywhere from 5 to 14 days depending on how things go and how I'm feeling.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: The Exodus

Once again a special thanks to dwellerofcrag for the reviews. ^^ *gives cookies* Have fun with your friend while he's here. Also this chapter marks the half way point in the story. Thank you for sticking with me this far! Also I'll try to update more frequently than I have been. What was originally thought to be something more serious turns out to be a spinal and nerve injury that didn't present with pain because of the damage to the nerve. Right now I don't know the prognosis but I'm happy this is all it is because it could have been much worse. *tries to do a happy dance and flails like an imbecile before falling and landing on head.*

Two weeks later the preparations had been made to move the village. At the relocation site, the new foundations had been dug to the specifications of each building. Every home, business, and community building had been accounted for and anchoring systems were set up to bind each building to the ground. Food had been prepared for everyone and had been stored in a summoning scroll along side double the amount of water they would need. Each household was given a sealing scroll to store all their items in. This meant everything they didn't need that wasn't bolted, cemented, or otherwise fixed permanently in place. All doors had been removed, all light bulbs, all window treatments, and windows where possible. In all, the removal of those fixtures shaved a total of 14 tons of weight from the village, and the removal of the furniture and personal belongings removed a further 126 tons. The scrolls were labeled according to the street address and organized onto carts that would go by district to deliver them upon arrival. Carts for villagers who were unable to walk for long periods of time were set up along with check points every three hours with a shinobi where everyone had to stop and check in to make sure nobody got lost on the way. The food and water scrolls were placed on another cart and in total there were 27 carts to carry everything. In all that wasn't bad for moving the contents of an entire village. Kankuro had done a good job of planning this. There were shelters set up at the half way point for the night they would be in the desert. He didn't want to be stopping after dark so they would go for three quarters of the day. He would rather have everyone settled in before that. There were 6 families to each large tent, or 24 people. Surrounding the villagers would be the village's top shinobi to make sure nobody fell behind and to protect them in the event of an attack. Any family or individual who had a beast of burden was allowed to ride on it and they were to be in the front of the procession in case something spooked them and they took off. That way they wouldn't go charging through a crowd of unprepared people. Gaara and Temari's uncles, who they only saw every other year at best, had all risen to the occasion with their magnet release. They were all stationed at other critical check points or villages within the wind nation. But for this operation they needed all the lift they could get. Several of their cousins had arrived to help as well. Rasa and Gaara included, there were 12 magnet release users available, each one wielding a different type of dust. Rasa used gold, Gaara had sand, someone else had platinum, another had copper, yet another had titanium, someone had steel, there was cobalt, lead, nickel, bronze, brass, cadmium, and even one who used liquid Mercury. It was a sight to behold.

Rasa and Gaara were the strongest, and close to them were the steal and lead users. They had decided to organize it into 4 shifts of three hours each with one of them leading each shift. If help was needed anyone on the previous shift could join but those who were on the next shift had strict orders to save their chakra. More than a few were giving Rasa dirty looks because they didn't like him out of jealousy. None of them approved of him and Kankuro being together. None had ever considered him a nephew or a cousin though. It was simply the fact they were both men and the age difference. At that moment in time the steel user and lead user, Rasa's two older brothers, we're giving Rasa shit for it. Kankuro had been allowed to ride a horse because he was 16 weeks pregnant and hops over a cart to them, accidentally knocking one of them to the ground. Okay maybe it wasn't an accident. "Ladies lets stop having a cock fight. Just distribute the strength as evenly as possible among the teams and we can have a pissing contest when we get to the new village site and get everything placed. It's almost 6:00 so we have to get moving. A group this big isn't going to move its self and I want us at camp by 6:30 this evening." He says and Gaara face palms. "I don't think he got enough soap in his mouth growing up." Rasa shakes his head. "No. It just didn't work with him. It's refreshing though to have someone like him who just doesn't care and speaks his mind." He says and looks at his stomach as he rides off. "Yeah. You always know where you stand with him." Says the lead user as he stands up from Kankuro's fiasco. "Rasa he's big around the middle. Did you knock him up?" Gaara and Rasa looks at him like he's stupid. "Yeah. Do you pay attention at all Kappa?"* Rasa asks. Dodomiki**, the steel user, face palms. "Yeah. They sent announcements out last month you lead head." He rolls his eyes and says, "I usually put off opening his mail unless it's marked as urgent. It's usually paper work." Rasa hits the back of his head at that. "Yeah and that puts me behind schedule and gets me in trouble with the council. Any way, I'll take first shift since that's what the villagers are expecting me to do. They'll want me to take the lead." He says. They nod and distribute the strength evenly among everyone while Kankuro does one last run through of the village to make sure it was clear. When he finds it empty he brings all the magnet users horses so they can focus on lifting and pushing the village to the new location and not wear themselves out walking. Half the members of the puppet corps were perched on carts along side to help them steer it and shinobi were in place to lead the horses so that the magnet release and puppeteers could focus. "Okay. On the signal we lift this off the ground. Everyone get ready." Rasa instructs his team as he watches for Gaara to signal that everyone gets in position on their respective sides of the village and the people start moving south east. Once they were clear Gaara shoots a hand made of sand into the air, signaling that it was time to lift the town, and Rasa and his team lift, pushing with all their strength to get it into the air. This would be the hardest part. The people watch as the village slowly rises into the air, sweat budding on the brows of the three Shinobi lifting a whole town, kept steady by thousands of chakra threads until it finally reaches 100 yards in the air and they start moving forward. Glittering gold dust sparkles in the light of the rising sun, supported by flickering specks of nickel and the sheen of liquid mercury. It was in the air and the worst of it was over now. Sustaining the village in the air would be much easier than the act of lifting it. A cheer spreads through the people and they head out, Kankuro bringing the team water and the occasional snack. At the end of the three hours everyone who had been on the team was exhausted and a new team relives them, Gaara heading this one up, adding their dust slowly as the starting team relinquishes their sand, exhausted by the labor.

Kankuro stops his horse and let's Rasa climb on behind him. "You did great Rasa." He says as the exhausted shinobi whom he loved wrapped his arms around him and put his head on his shoulder, closing his eyes. "Thanks babe." He mumbles and kisses Kankuro's cheek. "You need a food pill or something?" Kankuro asks. "I don't want you getting chakra exhaustion." As he asks Rasa's arms wrap around him and rest on his swollen stomach and rubs it tenderly. "I'm fine. I just need a nap. Do you have saddle straps on here?" He asks looking at Kankuro's elaborate saddle. It was designed for long periods of riding. "So you can sleep on the horse?" Kankuro asks with a chuckle. "The strap is right behind you." He says and Rasa smiles and straps himself in so he won't fall off and leans his head on Kankuro's shoulder and falls asleep, hands protectively wrapped around Kankuro and resting on the swell where their child grew and sleeps the entirety of the following shift. Kankuro can't help but smile.

After the first day goes off without a hitch everyone gets settled in and gets their food out, each group of 24 going to their tents. In Kankuro's tent was Rasa, himself, his siblings, the 2 uncles, 8 cousins, Baki, Chyio, Ebusuo, 2 aunts, and their 5 younger children who didn't have magnet release or were too young to use it. The 5 younger ones were all under the age of 6. Three of which the Sand Siblings hadn't met before. They were under two. One was a three month baby who just melted Kankuro's heart.

"Can you watch him while we get dinner done?" Asks Kappa's wife, Datsue, handing him the child. "It will be good practice for you." He nods smiling and cradles the baby. "I would love to." He says and rocks him softly, making Rasa smile. Kankuro would be a great mother when the time came. "This little one must be Oni***." Says Rasa and sits next to Kankuro and puts an arm around him. "Yep!" Says Kappa. "My new arrival!" He says all proudly as he starts to fuss and Kankuro soothes him and grabs the diaper bag to change him and lies the mat down and puts him on it, keeping a hand on his chest so he doesn't roll away. When he gets fussier at the fact he's being changed Kankuro gives him a few toys and a pacifier and cleans him up quickly before putting cream and powder on him and then cleaning his hands and playing peekaboo with him. "My god he's a natural. How old is he now? 20?" Asks Dodomiki as he smiles at Kankuro's skills. Oni was a fussy baby and Kankuro was doing great with him. "Actually I'm 17. Nearly 18 now. If it were up to us we probably would have waited a few years but dealing with the council is..." Kankuro starts and shakes his head as he picks Oni back up and rocks him and Rasa pulls Kankuro close to nuzzle his belly. "Dealing with them is like being kicked in the balls." Says Dodomiki. "Exactly." Rasa and Kankuro say at the same time. Kappa and Dodomiki both laugh. "Kankuro, you may wanna try feeding him." Datsue calls and he looks around for a bottle. "That's not what she meant." Says Rasa and points at a wet spot on Kankuro's shirt.

"Already? I'm not even half way through." He says and puts Oni's blanket over his shoulder and unties the sash and makes sure he's totally covered. The uncles had figured out something was up during the wedding and exchange glances. He didn't want anyone to see his baby bump even though he wasn't fat. "I wonder why this started so soon." He says, grabbing his black maternity yukata with short sleeves from his bag and having Rasa help him into that because it was dry. "It could be any number of things." Says Kyokotesu, Dodomiki's wife. "Your a boy so the pregnancy hormones are probably having a greater effect on your body, and those hormones are probably in overdrive right now with all the stress that's been going on. Then on top of that male breasts don't usually hold as much in early lactation but you may hold more in later. And holding a baby would probably make you produce more. Get a pump and see about donating your extra to an orphanage." She says and pats his back. The aunts had always been more accepting of him as being part of the family and had seen his admiration of Rasa years ago.

"I see. Will I be leeking everywhere the next 24 weeks?" He asks as Rasa helps wash off his war paint and Koykotesu shrugs. "This could be a one time thing or it could be ongoing. Everyone is different and every pregnancy is different. But you already have the instinct of a great mother." She says smiling at him. "Who knows. Maybe you and Rasa will catch up to us." Kappa adds with a grin. Kankuro quickly shakes his head. "I love the idea of kids, but not so many of them. I still want to have time to serve the people of this village." He says as everyone gathers around to eat summer sausage, chips, guacamole, and dried fruits. By the end of that it was time to sleep. Everyone was exhausted by the long day's journey.

Kankuro curls up to Rasa on the sleeping mat he brought along with blankets and Rasa holds him close. "You planed this so well. Now sleep love." He says and nuzzles his neck and Kankuro grins and says, "You preformed well. Your doing all the hard work. Now good night kisses are in order." With that he turns to face him so that they can kiss each other good night. After mutual pecks ghost the others cheeks their eyes flutter closed as they hold each other close, smiles on their faces.

The following morning everyone hustles to eat a quick breakfast of oatmeal and pack up their stuff and Kankuro assigns a squad of shinobi to break down and seal the tents, then everyone checks in as Rasa's team mounts their horses, the puppet corps assemble, and Gaara gets ready to signal. Once every member of the team is in place, Gaara signals them and they toil to lift the village a second time. As it rises into the air the sun starts to rise and a slight wind cools their brow. The people move forward and the village moves with them. It's a long, but uneventful day of walking and Rasa napping behind Kankuro as he had the previous day and then Kankuro falling asleep in front of Rasa. What made today special was they could see the oasis an hour before they arrived and the buzz of excitement around him woke the slumbering man and his husband welcomes him to the world of the living. "Almost time to put it in place?" He asks sleepily. "Yep. We should go meet the other teams." He says and rides over to the village while patting Kankuro's cheek to wake him up. He had to explain the plan.

After a minuet he was finally awake and ready to lie down the game plan. "Okay. You see those big triangles cut out of the bottom on the north, south, east and west sides?" Every team member nods. "Those are notches that will slide onto triangles over the area the foundations have been dug. Line those up and all the buildings will be lined up with their foundations, the gas hook ups will be lined up, the water and electric will be lined up. Those take out all the guess work. The hard part is goanna be precision but the puppet corps will help get you centered. The new anchoring system will autolock with pressure so once the village is placed its there to stay. Long and short of it is put the triangle shaped blocks in the triangle shaped holes." Says Kankuro. "Like the peg games for babies. I understand that may be difficult for Dodomiki but just follow everyone's lead." Rasa elaborates. Dodomiki sends him a pointed glare. "You know I'm the one who had to explain "shapes" going into "holes" with a peg board to you when you were 12 and popped your first woodie and thought you were dying." He says. Kankuro laughs so hard he nearly falls off his horse. Luckily for him Rasa was there to catch him, but Gaara wasn't so fortunate. His sand protected him from any serious injury, but not the misfortune of landing in a pile of what a horse had previously digested, leaving everyone, who was already laughing, in tears, and a red head in need of a change of clothing and a shower. "Let's get the water hooked up." Says Gaara. As he climbs back on the horse, no longer laughing and taking off his red jacket, risking sun burn in order to not smell like what comes out of the business end of a horse. "I think we can wait a day or two don't you Kankuro?" Asks Rasa. Kankuro nods. "Oh yeah. Most definitely." He says as everyone rides toward the oasis, positioning their horses on the proper sides of the village as they start to guide it into place.

"Very funny. Perhaps I'll retire for the night in your chambers." Says Gaara. "You don't sleep. Therefore your joke makes no sense." Rasa counters as they reach the foundations and every magnet release user spreads around the village evenly, spaced out like the numbers on a clock and the puppet corps fills in between them, Kankuro included in their ranks, positioned infront of Rasa on his horse. About 20 puppeteers are between each user of the magnet release and are spaced about 100 feet apart so that they can stretch the diameter of the village. As they slowly lower it down the puppeteers pull and turn with their chakra threads in the direction the village needed to go, smoothing out the smaller, more delicate movements as the foundations started to line up. They lower it gently, foot by foot, inch by inch until it slides into place. The engineers context all the utilities and the shinobi distribute each household's scroll and everyone goes to their homes. They had done it. They were home.

The first thing Gaara does when they get back is shower as Rasa, Temari, and Baki unpack, the rest of the family helping. With so many hands progress was quick and everything was in its place. They didn't want Kankuro to do any heavy lifting so he made them a dinner of pasta with garlic toast as they got the furniture in place. They all settle down to eat, exhausted from the grueling journey across the desert and eat with exhausted weary expressions and very little conversation before going to bed.

The next morning Kankuro's uncles and their family's pack up and head out after exchanging their good byes and the village was awake with everyone unpacking and settling in. New fields were being planted since it was the begging of a new planting season and the market was being set up with the crops that had been harvested and sealed for transport. Offices and businesses were being set up. Everyone was doing their part. Kankuro and those who couldn't do heavy lifting directed the flow of items and kept track of inventory. By the end of the day everything was as it should have been.

Two weeks later a scouting expedition returned from the ravine. It had expanded and swallowed up the entire box canyon wherein the village had previously sat.

*water demon

** A hundred eyed demon

*** classic Japanese demon

(Rasa means sand demon and Gaara literally translates to me love demon, i.e, self loving demon. I thought I would stick to the name theme with the uncles.)

Sorry for taking so long on this chapter. A lot of shit happened. I had a lot of school work and on top of trying to figure out what was wrong with me my cat had a seizure and just dropped dead in front of me. I tried giving him CPR but nothing worked and I'm just devastated. Nothing seems to be going my way lately. Any way please review now that you already read. Flames will be given to Orochimaru so that he can be an even bigger flamer than he is already. And I mean that with the utmost affection.


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